Consolation Prize
by nambnb
Summary: Koujaku realizes his feelings for Aoba after he has already chosen a lover and in the middle of all of his feelings being in shambles a noisy brat bumps against him on the streets and takes an interest in him later.
1. Chapter 1

Today would be the day that he would invite himself over for dinner at the Seragakis again after a long time of abstinence from Tae's excellent home cooking. At least that was the plan Koujaku had come up with since morning. Aoba seemed to have finally gotten over the incidents of Platinum Jail, which dated back over a year now. He hadn't wanted to talk to Koujaku about what exactly had happened then, but he looked kind of depressed ever since he had gotten back from there. Not to mention the whole month Aoba had spent holed up in his room afterwards, refusing to go outside or to respond to his coil for the most part and not even telling Tae what was wrong with him.  
When Koujaku had asked Aoba what had happened to the gas mask guy who had accompanied Aoba to Platinum Jail, Aoba had broken down into a crying fit and the only thing he had gotten out of him was that the other had rescued him from Toue. The most important thing for Koujaku was that Aoba was save, but it seemed the other guy had not made it out of the tower alive before it had collapsed due to its main systems giving in - at least that was the conclusion that made the most sense considering Aoba's behaviour and the fact that Koujaku hadn't seen the white-haired oddball around Aoba anymore since then. He hadn't known that Aoba cared so much about him, but he was a very sympathetic person ever since he was a kid and he seemed to blame himself for whatever had happened in Oval Tower, too, so Koujaku could somewhat understand his condition. Aoba refused to tell him the details though, so the real events happening in Oval Tower stayed a mystery for Koujaku.

The more worrisome aspect for him was that Aoba wouldn't allow Koujaku to come over for the first couple of weeks he shut himself away from the world, so they couldn't talk properly with each other. If Aoba was really stricken with grief over the loss of the gas mask guy then Koujaku could relate to simply wanting to be alone with his pain, but Tae had told him that Aoba looked more and more desperate the longer it lasted, so he was really glad when Aoba's grandmother finally forced her grandson out of his room after a good four weeks had passed and Aoba finally had told her about his trouble - the details hadn't reached Koujaku's ears, though. It seemed to have been something very complicated indeed.  
But at least Aoba had returned to Heibon afterwards and resumed working there, so it was possible to speak to him again. He still appeared to be fidgety, though, and sometimes it was all too obvious that he tried to act normal even though there was clearly something wrong with him. But it looked like Aoba had been able to let go of the worst part of the burden he had carried around with himself then.

Koujaku had tried to invite himself over to the Seragakis a few times before, while speaking with Aoba when they passed each other on the streets of Midorijima or at Heibon, but they had only ended up making small talk and the right occasion to bring it up seldom arose or Aoba looked troubled at the prospect, so Koujaku backed down every time. A surprise attack was out of the question, too, since Aoba might still need some more time to get over his issues, so Koujaku didn't try to pressure him. He wanted to give him the feeling that Aoba could come to him whenever he was ready to talk instead.  
He had insisted on meeting with Aoba in front of his house at least once a month however, even if they might end up talking only for a few minutes over trivial things via Aoba's balcony or in front of his house.

And today four weeks had passed since his last visit and Aoba finally seemed to feel better, even laughing again. So maybe today they could have a proper talk over a bite of Tae's cooking then.  
Koujaku hadn't deemed it necessary to announce his visit beforehand due to his visits' regularity now, but he was sure it wouldn't pose any problem anymore anyway.

Circling around the corner to get on the street to Aoba's home Koujaku suddenly stopped dead in his tracks.

Had he seen a ghost just now?

He could have sworn he knew the guy who featured that white hair and overcoat whit a yellow scarf around his neck, who wore dark gray pants and white boots and was carrying some heavy looking grocery bags in his arms.

But that couldn't be, could it?  
Wasn't that just outright impossible?

Koujaku pressed his back against the wall surrounding the Seragakis' house and peeked around the corner in an attempt to catch a better glance of the guy he had just thought to recognize.  
When he saw his side profile he was sure to spot a gas mask on the guy's face.

Was that... Clear?

But how was that even possible? Had he misinterpreted Aoba's behaviour that much? Of course Koujaku was happy to see the gas mask guy up and kicking instead of being dead but what had been been going on with Aoba for the past year then? Had Clear been in critical condition in the hospital instead? But as far as Koujaku knew the only person Aoba had frequently visited at the hospital had been Mizuki.  
And why the hell was the white-haired weirdo doing grocery shopping for Aoba now?

Koujaku didn't know why all of that irked him so much but he needed some answers now - badly. So he quit the stealth mode and ran over to Aoba's front door, opening it without so much as knocking or announcing his presence and was about to run up to the kitchen he heard people talking from, when his manners kicked in after all and he wanted to at least take off his shoes before entering the house.

Aoba and Clear chose that same moment to come out of the kitchen, arguing with each other.

"Geez, Clear, I told you not to put that mask back on or you don't need to be surprised if some of the street vendors will refuse you service - most of them are nice old ladies that are easily irritated, you hear me?"

"But Aoba-san", Clear's voice echoed below his mask as he whined like a kicked puppy, "it's still so new for me to leave that mask off and I was in surrounded by a crowd of people and suddenly I felt so... exposed, like being naked in front of everybody. It was a pretty bad kind of feeling. It was scary."

Aoba turned around with arms akimbo and the preaching tone in his voice melted away with a sigh.  
"Well fine, but at least take it off when you're around me, okay?"  
Not waiting for an answer, Aoba took off Clear's mask in one go and revealed the rather handsome face of a young man with pink eyes and two moles on his chin. Aoba smiled at him and his voice carried a warm undertone.  
"Way better."  
Then he kissed Clear on his lips.

Koujaku let out a surprised gasp at the view and thus attracted attention to himself now.

"Koujaku!", Aoba exclaimed surprised to see his best friend kneeing on his doorstep and got red up to his ears as his brain caught on on what scene he had witnessed just now.

Clear immediately got flustered as well and stuttered.  
"K-K-K-Koujaku-san?"

"What are you doing here?", Aoba asked and bit his lower lip, obviously uncomfortable about the whole situation.

Koujaku slapped on a strained smile and put his half-undone shoes back on at the same time.  
"I was just thinking of inviting myself over to a bite of Tae's cooking, but I seem to have bad timing, so please excuse the intrusion. I'll be on my way out in a second."

"Koujaku!"  
Aoba tried to keep him from leaving by grabbing his sleeve, but Koujaku pulled it out of his grasp with a swift gesture and stormed out of the house the next instant.

* * *

Shit!  
Why was he so angry now?  
No, it was more like being upset, but still...!  
He didn't know the reason himself while he ran down the streets towards his home.

Clear was alive and Aoba seemed happy - those were two good news at once, but why had it hit him so hard to see them kissing?

Why was he so frustrated about the fact that Aoba seemed to have found somebody he wanted to be with?

Was it because he hadn't expected Aoba to like guys?  
Was it because it was Clear - some odd, gas mask wearing guy that was too handsome to have any good reason to hide his face from the world? A guy Koujaku knew close to nothing about and thus couldn't deduce if he was good enough to be Aoba's lover?

Why did he feel so... betrayed by all of this?  
Why...  
Why couldn't it have been anyone else?

Why couldn't it have been... him?

Koujaku stopped himself from running at this realization and took in hasty breaths to try to get back some air back into his lungs.

So that's what it was then? He had wanted to be the one by Aoba's side all this time? He had felt more than friendship towards Aoba and just never realized it until now? No, that couldn't be right, of course he had known it deep down inside of him. But whenever his thoughts were directed that way he had shrugged it off as doting too much on his best friend. He had known Aoba since he was a cute, little kid after all. He had always tried to protect him from harm, so Aoba being close to his heart wasn't something unusual for Koujaku.  
Just... that feeling of wanting to be more than just friends...  
He hadn't taken such thoughts seriously until now. He had always been attracted to girls, he liked their softness, their cuteness, the way their skin felt on his.  
But Aoba...  
Aoba had always been special to him and the sole memory of his smile had saved Koujaku from the deepest pit of darkness he had found himself in once already.  
If it was about him he could probably forget the fact that he was a man and just go with the flow of the moment should it ever arise.

Koujaku snorted at himself as his thoughts swept across his mind like a whirlwind.

What use was it to think about all of this now?  
It was too late already.  
Aoba had chosen somebody he held dear by now and judging from the way he had acted ever since Oval Tower it wasn't something that just popped up recently. He must have been in love with Clear for over a year now, had suffered because of him due to whatever incident had occurred to separate them and must be overjoyed to have him back by his side now.

Koujaku cursed under his breath that he begrudged Aoba's happiness and then he swore at the weather.  
Did it have to rain now of all times, too?  
He wiped at his face that had gotten wet only to realize that it wasn't rain but tears streaming down his face.

"Aoba..."  
His voice sounded hoarse and broken to his own ears and Koujaku grit his teeth and spat out another curse before he continued on his way home, this time using side streets so as not to encounter any people he might know.

* * *

When he finally arrived at his house, the first thing he did was to open his liqueur cabinet and take out every sake bottle with high alcoholic strength he could find. Then he poured himself one cup, then another and followed through with this routine until his spinning, aching head and churning stomach nearly killed him. He just wanted to stop thinking about useless what-if scenarios and to get that image of Aoba kissing Clear out of his head. But it seemed that the more he drank the harder it got to keep those thoughts at bay. He was furious, he was sad. He was upset with himself the most for not having acted sooner and making Aoba his before it was too late.  
He knew that he should be glad for Aoba happiness but he simply couldn't arrive at that conclusion yet.

After tormenting himself for hours Koujaku was finally able to cry himself to sleep, feeling absolutely miserable.

The next morning Koujaku felt like shit. His head hurt like somebody had hammered on it the whole night long, his stomach told him more than once that it wanted stuff to be out of it, not inside - even though Koujaku only tried to drink some water - and his general mood was close to depression.  
Alcohol never helped - he knew that. He normally didn't drink like that, either. He was a man to drink for enjoyment, not to reach a devastated state like the one last night. But he hadn't been able to help himself then.  
He certainly wouldn't be able to open shop today and messaged his Benishigure members to tell the ladies probably already waiting at the usual spot that he wouldn't be there today.

Unable to do anything else he took in some pain killers and sipped some tea to calm down his stomach, but still spent the whole day between bed and toilet, railed against his fate and cursed his own stupidity.

* * *

Koujaku woke up from a weird dream in the middle of the night.  
In his dream the one kissing Aoba's lips wasn't Clear but him and Aoba liked the way Koujaku kissed him a lot, giving in to the pleasure in no time and moaning his name. Koujaku had then proceeded to undress him and to caress his body while he tasted his sleek hair he had dreamed of touching ever since childhood. Aoba's naked skin had felt warm and soft to his touch as well, but in the middle of showering Aoba's whole body with kisses Clear had shown up from nowhere and Aoba had instantly wanted to be held only by him, kissing and hugging him like there was no tomorrow. Koujaku had been furious beyond compare, but the moment his rage had reached its peak and he wanted to tear his rival to shreds he had woken up bathed in perspiration with a burning, aching feeling on his back. Trying to shake off the dream's afterglow, he sensed a very frustrated feeling below his waistline as well.

"Shit...!", Koujaku cursed and decided he needed some fresh air. His headache was still close to killing him and with throwing up the whole day before, the pain killers had have close to no effect obviously. Getting dressed while lowly grumbling to himself he took a bottle of water with him to sip on it now and then while he walked to at least get some water back into his system.

The streets of Midorijima weren't completely dark even at night, although the district Koujaku lived in wasn't the one chosen for the wild night parties other areas of Midorijima were well-known for, but Koujaku didn't encounter many people and the ones he passed by luckily had no interest in him.

If it happened by chance or Koujaku had directed his feet there unconsciously he didn't know, but when he looked up to realize where he had gone while lost in thought he found himself standing in front of Aoba's house.  
Angry at himself he exhaled through gritted teeth and wanted to turn on his heels when Aoba's balcony door opened and he stepped outside alongside Clear. Koujaku hurriedly pressed his back against the outer wall of the Seragakis' home so as not to be spotted from the other's point of view.

"I really hope that Koujaku is okay. He didn't answer any of my messages and he didn't open up shop today so I couldn't meet him. Maybe I should have stopped by his place after all.", Aoba sighed and squeezed his hands together that he had put on the balcony railing. Clear put his gloved hands on top of Aoba's' and nuzzled his hair.

"I'm sure Koujaku-san will be fine, Aoba-san. He probably needs some time for himself. At least that's what I'm deducing by the way he was acting after he saw us being intimate with each other."  
Clear's voice sounded sadly, almost rueful, but it enraged Koujaku even more for some reason.

"Yeah, you're right. It might have been a bit much for him to see us like this. I mean Koujaku is my best friend and all the time I was sad while you weren't there he tried to console me and then he shows up at my doorstep and sees the two of us like this without me being able to prepare him for anything. I mean...", Aoba sighed heavily and buried his face in the nape of Clear's neck, "I couldn't even properly introduce you to him or the fact that you're alright again after all that had happened."

"But I already know Koujaku-san. Why would you need to introduce me to him then, Aoba-san?", Clear asked in confusion and Aoba looked up to him flustered.

"I-I mean as... lo-lovers... you idiot.", Aoba mumbled in an embarrassed tone.

"Ah...!"  
Clear finally got what Aoba wanted to say and his cheeks reddened at Aoba's words.  
"Aoba-san...! You're so cute...!"  
He couldn't help himself but to kiss him all over his face while Aoba struggled in his arms.

"C-Clear...! No, stop it! Not out here-ungh...!"  
Aoba's protests died down immediately when Clear caught his mouth and slipped his tongue in between Aoba's lips.

Koujaku tried not to concentrate on the low sounds of them making out in vain and his hands cramped around the bottle of water in his hands frightfully tight - it even might crack if he gripped it any harder.

Clear finally let go of Aoba's lips and scooped him up in his arms, carrying him princess-style towards Aoba's room.  
"Let's continue indoors, Aoba-san."

"Le-let me down, you idiot-Clear!", Aoba protested but Clear only laughed at him in amusement and carried him inside, shutting the balcony door behind them as he went.

"Damn it!"  
Koujaku finally let out a curse and threw the bottle of water on the pavement where it shattered to pieces.  
He banged his fist against the wall he stood against, not minding the pain, and then pushed himself away from it to head in the direction he had come from.  
Not watching where he was going he bumped into another person now of all times, too.

"Ugh! Oi, watch where you're going!", the young man grumbled against his chest and Koujaku jumped a step backwards in irritation.

"Agh, excuse me. I didn't look-", Koujaku tried to sort his thoughts again to piece together a proper apology when his eyes caught a fierce, light green stare directed at him.  
"Wait, aren't you... Noiz?"

"Ugh, well congratulations to your brain still working, old man."  
The other seemed very annoyed about having met him, but Koujaku didn't want to have any of it at the moment and instantly became even more angry.

"What are you doing here at this time of night? Little kids ought to be asleep already."

"Tche!", Noiz spat out and retorted, "Can't a grown-up guy take a walk during the night anymore?"

"Hmpf, well you ended up in front of Aoba's house - coincidence?"

That accusation was far-fetched enough to even sound stupid to Koujaku's own ears. He had been the one who bumped into Noiz after all and had made him stop. The other probably had no intentions to give his current location as much as a single thought while he was on his way to whatever destination. But Koujaku had the strong urge to punch somebody in the face and when an argument arose between the two of them that gave him an excuse to let go of his anger, he would gladly provoke anyone now - childish as it might be.

"Huh?"  
Noiz rose one eyebrow and looked as unimpressed as ever, not seeming to be the least interested in playing games with Koujaku right now. Giving Aoba's house a short look, he recognized the familiarity of the building.  
"Ah... yeah, maybe that's it. What does it matter? I was just passing by anyways. What do you even care if it's his house I'm passing by? Are you his babysitter or what?"

"Says the guy who once broke into Aoba's room!", Koujaku snorted and then added with a sly grin on his face: "At least I care enough for my friends to keep an eye open who they're hanging out with. But I guess a shut-in, unsympathetic guy like you wouldn't care. You probably lack the capability to produce such feelings, huh?"  
Koujaku didn't even care anymore what he was saying as long as he could get rid of of part of his burning fury. But then he saw the shocked look in Noiz' eyes that was quite unbecoming for the usually stoic face he put on most of the time. If Koujaku looked closer he even seemed... hurt? Had he gone too far with what he had said already? Damn this headache that made it so hard to think straight now!

Noiz backed away from him slightly, clearly in defense-mode, and growled at him.  
"Are you... drunk? I'm not talking to drunk people! Get out of my way!"

In his attempt to turn on his heels to head for a different direction than Koujaku's, Noiz made a hasty movement with his feet and suddenly fell to the ground. Koujaku looked at him puzzled but then realized that the other must have slipped on the shards of the bottle he had so carelessly thrown to ground earlier. And now the other lay there and blood seeped out from his legs.

"Shit...!", Noiz cursed and drew up his legs, pulling out a few shards that had pierced his skin even through the fabric of his pants and stood up again seemingly uncaring for his wounds even though he bled quite strongly immediately.

"Oi...!", Koujaku called after him, feeling responsible for the whole affair and wanted to make sure Noiz was okay, his fury having been replaced with guilt and worry in an instant. Noiz didn't stop however, not even walking with a limp - maybe due to pride. But it must hurt like shit if the blood on the shards he had pulled out were any indication for how deep the glass had pierced his skin, plus he had fallen down on it with his whole body weight, so the damage must have been quite serious.  
"Hey, didn't you hear me? Wait up!"  
Koujaku finally caught up to Noiz and grabbed him by his shoulder to make him turn around and stop.

"Let me take a look at those wounds, okay? You're hurt, right?"

Noiz pulled away by half turning his body and looked back at him fiercely.  
"No, thank you. If I leave it alone it will heal and I don't need your faked sympathy!"

He tried to get away, but Koujaku grabbed at his wrist instead now.  
"Hey, wait. At least listen to me, okay?"  
He sighed heavily and scratched his back of the head in an attempt to sort his thoughts through his headache-drumming brain that felt like cotton was stuffed into it.  
"I'm sorry I said those things earlier. You're right, I'm drunk and it's because the last few days were shitty as can be for me. But that's not reason to let it out on you so at least let me help you, okay?"

Noiz looked at him like he wanted to discern if Koujaku was telling the truth - or if he was in his right mind to be more honest, seeing as he had just made a one-eighty in his behavior. He seemed a bit bewildered by the fact that the other had just apologized to him for the way he had treated him as well. Still, Noiz was not in intending to let the other touch him and pulled away again.  
"Okay fine, apology accepted. Can you stop bothering me now? I don't need anyone's help treating my injuries. I can do it by myself just fine. And why do you care about me anyways? It's my fault that I fell."

"Yeah, but it's my fault those shards lay there in the first place.", Koujaku countered and looked at Noiz with his mind made up.  
"Look, no matter what you say, I'll see you home and I want to know that you're treating those injuries right instead of just leaving them alone. These cuts look quite deep and if it becomes infected you could loose more than just a little blood, you hear me? And I don't want to be responsible for that. So stop playing the hard man already. It must hurt quite bad, right?"

Noiz put a sour look on his face and even seemed to pout. On the one hand he had the strong urge to just make a run for it and be done with Koujaku's meddling, on the other hand it might hold true what he had said and his injuries might be worse than he thought them to be - it was hard for him to judge that kind of thing. He sighed. It was probably the easiest solution to let that guy have his way and allow him to mother him for a bit this time. It was a real bother to convince drunk people that their ideas were stupid anyways. It was kind of ironic that Koujaku of all people was so insistent on wanting to help him; it was nearly comical when he thought about it. Maybe he could use that against him later on should the need arise.

"Fine, have it your way, but then you'll stop to annoy me, got it?", Noiz finally answered him with an unnerved look on his face and Koujaku gave him a smile that Noiz hadn't expected at all and didn't know how to react to it other than to break eye contact.

Koujaku was happy that the other finally had accepted his offer to help him and that he could redo at least one of his mistakes today - even if it concerned that annoying Noiz-brat. But he was the adult between the two of them so he felt like he should act like it at least in this kind of situation.

* * *

They had to walk for a while to reach the district Noiz lived at but it was still closer than Koujaku's own home, which relieved him for two reasons. One was that he didn't have to bring the brat to his own home to treat him to get it over with faster and the other was that it meant less time spent on walking to their destination, since Noiz' legs looked really bad by now. Koujaku even seriously considered carrying him if necessary by now - it would have just been hard to sell that idea to the other who looked as unimpressed as ever with the situation, even if the lower part of his pants were soaked in blood by now and it hurt just to look at him walking around like that. How Noiz could give off the aura like nothing was wrong with him was beyond Koujaku's understanding.

The building Noiz lived in looked pretty run-down from the outside and very small from the inside. Though "small" might have been the wrong choice of word, since the living room was packed over and over with things Koujaku didn't know the names of, but that looked very technical to him. He could discern various monitors, computer towers and keyboards and some speakers at least. As for the rest of the technical stuff crammed into every nook and cranny of the room he had no idea what it was called or used for. But it still looked amazingly clean for a young guy living on his own; there was no food debris or garbage thrown about as he had half expected it from a computer nerd of Noiz' caliber. Even the annoying cubes Noiz liked to spy on people with were stacked neatly in one place, though a few of them seemed to have been used as building bricks for small towers or something like that. It was almost endearing - Koujaku had to cough at his own thoughts at that moment. Noiz might have been many things but "endearing" sure was far from it!  
There stood a bed in one corner of the room as well, halfway isolated by a bookshelf-like room divider - it was nearly bewildering to find actual books made of paper stored in there, considering the fact that Noiz usually preferred digital monitors to gather any kind of information with. So the brat read from time to time, too, it seemed. Just the language the titles were written in was something Koujaku didn't understand - it was clearly not Japanese, the letters were in Latin script, but it wasn't English either, or Koujaku would have recognized at least a few words of it. So Noiz was some kind of a multilingual genius on top of all of it, too?  
Koujaku felt the old aversion against Noiz crawl up his spine again, but then he shook his head to get rid of that. He wasn't here to judge the guy's lifestyle or hobbies. He was only here to make sure the brat would treat his wounds properly since he felt responsible that he was hurt.

Then he heard footsteps behind him and Noiz stood there with a first aid kit he had brought from the bathroom.  
"So let's get this over with then, shall we?"

"Yeah."  
Koujaku nodded and took the first aid kit.  
"Take a seat somewhere, so that I can have a proper look at you."

Noiz grumbled in response and took a seat on the bed, which seemed to be the only elevated place in the living room aside from a low table on the floor. Koujaku placed the first aid kit on the table and took out some antiseptics, a cloth and bandages before he headed over to Noiz and knelt down in front of him.

"Mh... Maybe it would be better if you took off those pants after all. I can't see a thing like this.", he uttered with a critical look at the dirtied and blood-soaked fabric and earned himself a chuckle from Noiz.

"Heh? I see how it is. So is this the real reason you wanted to accompany me here? So that I can take off my pants in front of you?"

Koujaku got flustered and felt misunderstood.  
"Of course not, you idiot! I just can't see anything, that's all! Besides, you're a guy, what should happen?"

Noiz already was about to undo his belt to take off his pants and leggings but had to jab back.  
"Says the man who looked heartbroken over the fact that he met me in front of Aoba's home at some late night time."

Koujaku growled at him.  
"Just for your information: Aoba and I are best friends for ages now and I like girls, I always have. Are we clear?"  
Still, as he said that Aoba had always held a special place in his heart and as hard as it was to admit to himself, he currently was heartbroken as Noiz had mentioned it, because he had developed feelings beyond friendship for his best friend without allowing himself to notice it before Aoba had gotten himself a lover. Therefore Koujaku could not deny the possibility that under certain circumstances he might make exceptions when it came to gender. But if any, then surely not for that brat right in front of him who sat there in just his underpants now, even if his naked legs were quite nice for a guy - albeit a bit bloody - as they dangled right before his nose now-The hell was he thinking?!  
The alcohol still circling in his system must have made him all weird.

This was stupid!  
He was here to treat the kid's wounds, so that's what he was going to do now!

It would be best to wash away the blood first, though, so Koujaku got up to wet the cloth from the first aid kit in the kitchen sink and then carefully wiped away the blood on Noiz' legs. He expected Noiz to jolt up and cry out in pain when he came close to a wound, but the other just stared down boredly at him. Maybe he was really not that responsive to pain after all. A few small glass shards still seemed to be left in some of the wounds though, so Koujaku pulled out some tweezers from the first aid kit, sterilize them provisionally and then looked up to Noiz.

"This might sting, but please try not to pull your legs away abruptly or I might harm you even more, okay? If it hurts too much, just tell me and I'll stop."

"Yeah, yeah, it's fine, just go on.", Noiz commented on the whole situation, making Koujaku get angry at the fact that he just tried to act with caution. Still he tried to be as careful as possible as he pulled the leftover shards out. Then he used some more antiseptic to disinfect the cleaned-up wounds and gave all of them a scrutinizing look.

"Well it seems it's not so bad after all, aside from one of these cuts that looks quite deep. I think I'll need to stitch that."

"Stitching? You know how to do that?", Noiz seemed awfully interested in the subject, but he didn't seem worry about Koujaku's proposal, which in turn worried him to some extent.

"Well yeah, I can do that for you, but a doctor might be a better choice, just so you know.", he explained while putting some plasters on the less harmful looking wounds and dressed the larger ones.

"How do you even know how to do that?"  
Noiz' voice took a turn from curious to skeptical, making Koujaku snort through his nose lowly.

"Well, I'm the leader of a Rib team and sometimes things just get really ugly when you fight for your turf. If we'd run to the hospital with every little thing, we would be penniless in no time. Plus, the police would probably know where we are then, too. Aside from that..."  
Koujaku looked away, his view caught at the scars on his hands.  
"I've made some first-hand experiences with cuts, so I know what I'm doing, don't worry."

He got up and took another look at the first aid kit on the table.

"There isn't anything in here for stitching, so I guess we'll have to use the stuff I carry around."

He reached for the small bag he carried around his waist that mostly contained tools for cutting hair, but in a small fold put in between there was a folded piece of paper he took out, unfolded it and revealed a small hook-like needle attached to some nearly invisible string. Koujaku sterilized the needle with some of the antiseptic and then crouched down in front of Noiz again.

"This will sting, maybe quite badly, but try to hold still, okay?", he warned his patient but Noiz only gave him a shrug and a humming sound of having understood.

Honestly, his though-man-act annoyed the hell out of Koujaku by now and he seriously hoped the brat did really have enough nerve to endure being stitched up without any anesthesia. Surprisingly enough for Koujaku though, Noiz didn't flinch even once until the was done and he could finally bandage up the remaining wound, too.

"It would be best if you see a doctor in a few days for the stitched wound at least, so he can take a look at it and remove the thread.", Koujaku advised him as he got up. "Plus, watch out that none of these wounds get infected, got it?"

"Yeah, yeah. Thanks, I guess.", Noiz answered him waving his hand with his usual disinterest that made even his rare words of gratitude sound irrelevant.

Koujaku let out a huff through his nose, then he sighed deeply as he scratched his back of the head again and turned on his heels, heading for the door.  
"Fine then, good bye."  
Opening the door and being on his way out, he turned around again after a thought struck him.  
"Ah! And don't try to walk around too much too soon, or the wounds might reopen aga-"  
Half turning around during his speech, he saw Noiz up and about as he was collecting his pants from the floor in a position bending his knee and putting his full weight on the badly injured leg, causing blood to immediately spill out and darken the bandages.  
"AH! What did I tell you? Are you an idiot?!"  
He slammed the door shut and rushed back to forcefully put Noiz back into a sitting position on the bed. Having lost his patience now, he growled at him with a hyena-like smile clearly showing his teeth.  
"You know, you really get on my nerves with that. Don't you have any body awareness at all or what? The wounds must hurt, you should listen to your body when it hurts. It's trying to tell you that something's wrong with it and that it needs time to heal again. That includes trying to stay still when you've got wounds that bleed like fuck and not to move around like always!"  
He slapped a hand on his forehead, shaking his head.  
"Man, why are you acting like this? Do you like pain so much?"

"No.", came the dry answer and Koujaku looked up to him, surprised to see a rather angry expression on the other's face.  
"I don't like pain and it's not like I'm harming myself on purpose. Now just get out and leave me alone. You got your part of the good Samaritan acted out already, right? So why are you still here? What do you even care anymore?"

Koujaku was baffled by Noiz' recklessness against himself and his negating of other people's good intentions like it was all just a hassle for him. His face turned serious and he digged his nails into Noiz' shoulders as he held him down.  
"Now answer me honestly, please: You say you are not hurting yourself on purpose, yet you are clearly not showing any signs of watching out for yourself or the wounds you already have on your body. Why is that? Why are you that inconsiderate against yourself? Why don't you care?"

"That's none of your business!"  
Noiz tried to lash out at him, but Koujaku held him back by overpowering him and forcing him to keep still.

"Maybe, but it grates on my nerves! I just don't get it! Plus, you probably just waisted my effort of stitching your wound by moving around like you didn't care and opened it up again. You're self-destructive!"

"Just let me be!", Noiz strained against Koujaku like a mad man and was finally able to break his hold on him, making Koujaku loose his balance and fall on his back with Noiz trying to kick at him, but Koujaku grabbed his leg in time, before he realized that he just pressed his hands on a spot with cuts that immediately bled under his fingers.

"Oh shit...!", he let go and rolled to the side, looking worried at Noiz' reopened wounds. "God, look at this! What the hell is wrong with you?! Doesn't it hurt?! Can't you feel anything?!"

"That's right!", Noiz barked at him, finally having lost his temper and giving off a feral kind of aura, "If you have to know by all means then just know it: I can't fell pain for fuck's sake! It doesn't hurt - end of story! Now go on and say it: I am a monster - a freak of nature! Say it and be done with it and leave me be for good this time!"

Koujaku was completely baffled at Noiz' declaration that he couldn't feel pain and the way he reacted towards him like he was about to reproach him for his bodily condition.  
How was something like not being able to feel pain even possible?  
Was something wrong with Noiz' body? Or with his head?  
Feeling pain was a nerve thing, wasn't it? So... his nerves didn't work properly? Or the connection between feeling the pain with his body and actually registering it in his brain didn't function?  
Koujaku hadn't heard of a condition like that before, but it puzzled him to think about it.  
If you couldn't feel pain...

He looked into Noiz' enraged eyes and remembered the words he had thrown at him only a moment before, calling himself a "freak of nature" and a "monster".  
Koujaku let out a sigh through his nose.  
A monster, huh?  
Koujaku's facial expression changed to a sad, self-ironic look as he stared absentmindedly into an unfixed point in the room trying to sort out his jumbled up thoughts before he looked back at Noiz again.

"A monster? ...You're not a monster. A monster is... something that acts on raw emotion and hurts others without caring while blindly screaming for more when it's already bathing in its victims' blood... You... You just have a body that won't listen to all the sensations out there. That makes you different, but it doesn't make you a monster."

Noiz looked at him like he had gotten clobbered. His eyes had gone wide and his mouth hung open, speechless.

Koujaku scratched at the back of his neck as he tried to put his thoughts into words.  
"It's... problematic, isn't it? I mean, theoretically you always have to be extra careful not to hurt yourself, since you won't realize it if you damaged a part of your body. It's quite scary to think about it."  
Remembering the way Noiz acted despite his condition made Koujaku all the more angry for some reason now and he went on with a preaching undertone in his voice.  
"So be more careful, honestly. Your body might be more difficult to handle than an average person's but it's the only body you have, so you should try to look after yourself some more. Negating your body's needs will only injure you more in the end."

Sighing deeply for one last time, Koujaku turned towards the door again.  
"But you probably don't care what I'm telling you anyways. But don't come to me crying when your legs start to rot from the inside out because they became infected since you behaved like a stupid brat."  
Koujaku closed the door behind himself without looking this time and hoped that the prospect of Noiz' wounds getting worse to a point beyond repair might help him think about his wellbeing some more. Although Koujaku didn't really believe something like Noiz' wounds would develop in that direction, since he had treated them with care and even if the stitching had gotten loose now, the worst outcome might be some ugly scar. Still, he was at his wits end what to say to Noiz, so maybe it helped a bit.

Stopping himself in his line of thoughts, Koujaku wondered why he was even spending so much time thinking about Noiz now - he didn't particularly care for the kid to begin with. If anything the brat was constantly getting on his nerves with the way he acted like he didn't care about anything. But then again... if you couldn't feel pain that meant you had no idea how others felt when they were hurt either, right? But did his condition include not being able to feel emotional pain as well? Koujaku somehow couldn't believe that. Noiz' lack of sympathy must have had another cause.

For some reason Noiz' words rung in his ears again: "Now go on and say it: I am a monster - a freak of nature!"

"A monster, huh?", Koujaku muttered to himself while his feet led him on his way home and he was lost in thought.  
Being called a monster... Koujaku could relate to that, albeit for different reasons. But the bottom line was that others shunned you, were grossed out with you and didn't want to have anything to do with you. And... that you hated yourself for it.  
"Shit...!"  
Koujaku cursed as he went, being down to an extent he hadn't wanted to be. And he was frightfully sober at the moment, too. He wished he didn't have to think about any of this right now.


	2. Chapter 2

This... was unexpected.  
When Koujaku returned the next day to the spot he typically opened up shop at on the streets of Midorijima, there, in the middle of the usual crowd of beautiful ladies waiting for him, stood a lean and lanky guy with his hands in his pants pockets and a look on his face that spelled "annoyed" from half a mile away already. Before he realized he was even doing it, Koujaku found himself looking Noiz down to see if the stupid guy was as reckless as yesterday by putting weight on his injured legs, but saw that he stood there in a way to favour the worse hurt leg with the stitched wound at least. He sighed with a mix of relief and irritation and closed the gap between himself and his fans with a few strides, putting on a smile for them.

"Hello ladies, who of you pretty girls was first today?"  
After a wave of screams washed over him and the girls started fighting over who of them was there first, Noiz cleared his throat audibly and casually lifted one hand.

"Actually it was me. I was here before any of them showed up, so I'm first in line, aren't I?"

Koujaku's brow twitched in annoyance and he was inclined to ignore the brat, but then one of the females in the crowd spoke up.

"Yeah I know he was here first, I arrived here shortly after him, but Koujaku-san is a hairdresser for women, not for men! Right, Koujaku-san?"

The other girls in the crowd agreed with the fact that no man other than Koujaku was tolerated at the place they wanted their hair to get cut and tried to fight over who was to be first in line again, but then Noiz sighed with annoyance and scratched at his hat. Then he lifted one eyebrow and gave Koujaku a look like he simply couldn't take all of that ruckus seriously before he put on a devilish smile.

"So you all say he can't do it then? He's too stupid to cut a guy's hair?"

The girls in the crowd turned silent in a minute and looked at Noiz with a kind of murderous intent like they wanted him to drop dead on the spot. A few of them then screamed back at Noiz.

"Don't you dare insult Koujaku-san!"  
"Exactly! Of course Koujaku-san CAN do anything! But why should he care for you?"  
"Yeah, he's a women's hairdresser, if you want to get your hair cut, go somewhere else!"

"Hmmm..."  
Noiz gave them an unfazed look before he smiled again.  
"If you're so sure about his skills why don't you let him prove it to me? Afraid I'll find out that he's only popular because you all have the hots for him and not because of his skills?"

The entire crowd of girls boiled with rage at this point and Koujaku was suddenly very worried if he would have to get rid of a corpse in the very near future, so he tried to intervene by putting up the most charming smile he could manage at the moment and tried to blind his clients with an aura of confidence.

"Now, now, ladies, ladies. Please calm down a little. I heard he was first in line earlier, so it would be justified if he goes first then, even if he's not charming in the least. But if I start the day with the worst customer, then I can enjoy all of you pretty ladies all the more later."

The girls squeaked in unison and returned to swooning over Koujaku, even as he waved his hand to gesture for Noiz to come forward and take a seat on his makeshift hairdressing chair.  
The young man had a winner's smile on his lips as he passed by the girls with confident strides. They probably didn't even notice how idiotic their behaviour was. Plus he had just gotten what he wanted, which gave him some sort of satisfaction and he plopped down on Koujaku's chair.

Koujaku let out a sigh as he put a hairdressing cape around Noiz' neck and removed his knit hat from his hair to inspect what he was going to deal with here. Noiz' hair wasn't particularly long for his type of short hair cut, but he could use a trim if Koujaku looked closer. Still he probably had no real reason to go to a hairdresser of any kind yet and only wanted to annoy Koujaku for some reason - at least that's what he guessed for now.

"Well then, let's get this over with...", Koujaku sighed and moved his fingers through Noiz' hair to get a feeling of the texture.

He was astonished at how soft and fluffy it felt to the touch. Now Koujaku probably wouldn't go as far as to acknowledge to himself that he had some kind of hair fetishism - touching hair and liking it belonged to his job after all - but Noiz' hair felt so nice as he ran his fingers through it that he let out a gasp through his nose and nearly blushed. Plus, he could determine by the touch that it wasn't bleached or dyed either to bear that strawberry-blonde tinge it had. Well, Noiz' eyes were a very light green tone so Koujaku had already guessed that he probably wasn't Japanese, or at least not on both sides of his parents, but... Koujaku had to swallow hard as he caught himself throwing in a head massage as a service so as not to have to let go of Noiz' hair while he had been lost in thought. He shook his head to get his thoughts back in order, but continued his massage for a few more minutes so as to not make it look half-assed.  
Then... What then...?  
Ah right, a comb! He needed a comb now, so he reached for that.

Noiz didn't say anything while he sat on the chair and let Koujaku do his thing. If anything he seemed to enjoy the procedure even as Koujaku got from combing through his hair to cutting it and the hair ends fell down like a slow rain around him.

Only a few minutes later Koujaku combed through Noiz' hair one last time to get rid of most of the loose hair pieces, Koujaku brushed out his nape and opened up the hairdressing cape again.  
"All done. I hope you'll like it."  
He held a hand mirror in front of Noiz, who gave himself a short glance, but didn't seem to mind the state of his hair in particular, only quitting it with an acknowledging "Ah"-sound as he grabbed for his cap and put it back on.  
Koujaku was unnerved that his work was dismissed like that, but took a step aside to give Noiz some room to get up from the chair now.

"Thanks. As payment..."  
He put one arm around Koujaku's neck and before the other could even start to protest, he pressed his lips on his and deep-kissed him.

Koujaku froze instantly and the row of girls around him let out a shocked group gasp - some of them passed out as well.

When Noiz separated from the stunned man again, he licked his lips with a sly grin.  
"...I hope this will do. Have a nice day, old man."

That said he simply walked away before Koujaku could even piece together what the hell had just happened right now.

When Koujaku finally snapped out of it, he grit his teeth and had a scowl on his face that would prompt any other man to take to his heels.  
"Kh...! You!", he hollered after Noiz, reaching for the sword strapped onto his back while his eyes gleamed with fury.  
"I hope you were prepared to die today!"

"Hm?"  
Noiz looked over his shoulder casually before smiling.  
"Not enough after all? Well too bad then, I'm not carrying any money right now and I guess an old-fashioned guy like you only takes hard currency, so bye!"  
He waved at him and dashed away - well it looked more like he was hopping away in long strides for some reason and as Koujaku was about to follow suit he remembered Noiz' hurt legs and the fact that chasing him down town would only make matters worse again.  
He cursed at himself for even still caring about the brat's wounds and then was slowly approached by his female fans, who instantly tried to stroke his ego with compliments again. 

* * *

It took a while until Koujaku was able to return to his normal routine today. More than the fact that Noiz had kissed him this morning - which he shrugged off as the brat wanting to provoke him by all means - Koujaku pondered about the reason he had come to him in the first place. Had he really been so insistent on letting his hair cut by him only to play a dumb joke on him? He could have done that when passing by any time without having to sit down on his hairdressing chair. Well, maybe Koujaku would have been more on his guard had he seen him planning that kind of stuff then, though. But still... why had Noiz come to him?  
Koujaku could still remember the soft touch of his hair on his fingers when he thought about it. Was that it? Had Noiz wanted to be touched by him for some reason? Would he even feel it, given that he couldn't feel pain? Well, Koujaku certainly hadn't hurt him anyway... That whole situation was just too confusing for him.

Deciding to call it a day, he finished with his last customer and was about to put his makeshift hairdressing chair away, when somebody called out to him from across the street - it was Aoba. When he saw that Koujaku had noticed him, he hurried over to him and Koujaku flinched inwardly at the prospect of talking to him now.

"Koujaku! Finally I'm able to speak to you.", Aoba greeted him and then had to stop to catch his breath a little.

"Y-Yo, Aoba... on a delivery today?", he tried to sound as casual as possible, but his tension was more than obvious looking at his face or listening to his voice. Not to mention that he made a lot of unnecessary movements with his hands as he folded his hairdressing chair together.

Aoba chose to ignore that, or rather he only answered Koujaku's behavior with a worried look on his face.  
"No, I came here straight after work since I hoped I could talk to you."

"Talk to me? Did something happen?"  
Koujaku tried to avoid eye contact and to find some kind of excuse to get out of this conversation, but sadly his last customer had already left and he had no way of pretending to go on a date with her now to get away from Aoba.

Aoba tugged at his sleeve to get his attention.  
"Koujaku, look at me. Please..."

Koujaku swallowed hard and then his eyes wandered over to meet Aoba's. The worried look on his face made him step back from his own troubles to open up to what Aoba had to say in an instant and he sighed in a defeated way.  
"Well? I'm listening."

Aoba breathed out a sigh of relief and tried for a smile before he looked away and put his hands together, nervously twiddling his thumbs at first and obviously unsure how to begin his explanation.  
"You see... The last time you saw me and Clear... Well... that."  
He inhaled, bit his lip and decided he needed to take all his courage in both hands after all if he didn't want to come across as half-assed, so he looked Koujaku straight in the eye this time.  
"I love Clear and he loves me. I know this kind of relationship between two men might not be approved by you, Koujaku, but that's how it is. I just hoped it wouldn't affect our friendship. But I guess... it does?"

Koujaku let out a breath through his nose and looked at Aoba with furrowed brows.  
So that's what it was? Aoba was afraid he wouldn't accept their relationship and even going so far as to end their friendship because he was together with another man now?  
Koujaku felt a sting in his heart at that knowledge. How had Aoba even come to this kind of conclusion?  
Oh, right, he probably had fled the scene looking like an embarrassed homophobe after seeing the two of them kissing each other. He inwardly slapped himself for his reaction right then and sighed deeply.

"You know, Aoba, I would never end our friendship about finding out that you have fallen for another man. It's entirely your choice who you decide to be with, it's not my place to say anything to this."  
Koujaku took one step towards Aoba and put a hand on his shoulder, but looked him in the eye with a strong sense of needing an answer that satisfied him to approve of Aoba's relationship with Clear.  
"I am just worried about you all the time, it's a habit of mine. And I want to make sure you are happy, Aoba. So answer me this: Are you absolutely, completely sure that this gas mask guy-that Clear is really the right choice for you and that he can make you happy?"

Aoba's eyes went wide for a moment there before a genuine smile replaced the surprised expression on his face and he answered Koujaku with an affectionate tone in his voice.  
"Yes, I am absolutely sure about this, Koujaku. I am perfectly happy right now. Don't worry about it."

Koujaku's hand on Aoba's shoulder began to tremble and he removed it so as not to make Aoba notice his inner turmoil at his answer. At the same time he berated himself for even so much as hoping that Aoba might have wavered in his decision to be together with Clear.  
What would he have done then? Everything in his ability to prove to Aoba that he was right not to trust into an relationship with Clear and to appear as the right choice instead?  
How ridiculous... detestable even.  
If he wanted to come clean with Aoba about his own feelings towards him, maybe this was the right moment now. But why should he put all of that weight of an unrequited love on Aoba's shoulders when his friend just had told him that he was happy now? It felt so wrong that Koujaku chose to forget about this thought immediately and to continue dealing with that by himself. He didn't need Aoba to be torn between the feelings for Clear and for Koujaku whom he only knew as his best friend so far and probably wouldn't expect for him to want more from him.  
If anybody risked their friendship here it was Koujaku, not Aoba, so Koujaku tried to put on a smile and patted Aoba on the back, trying to sound as convincing as possible as he answered him in turn.

"Yes, good. That makes me feel all better, really. I was just worried because I know near to nothing about this guy and then I happen to find you in a relationship with him. This confused me. But if you say he can make you happy then I'll believe in your words, Aoba."

Aoba smiled at him, overjoyed at his approval.  
"I'll introduce you properly again later. You'll see that he's quite reliable and a very good guy. I'm sure you'll get along great."

"Y-yeah, I can't wait for it then."  
Koujaku really didn't want to be in this situation in the near future, but that was the tricky thing about lies or trying to hide your feelings: you had to keep up the facade under any circumstances even if you hated it, so as not to rise suspicion.

Aoba turned on his heels to head into the direction of his home and waved at Koujaku as he got away from him.  
"See you later, Koujaku! Ah, and in case you want to stop by, just tell me next time. Clear is able to make some delicious food as well, so you absolutely have to taste it sometime!"

Koujaku waved back at him, albeit a bit tense.  
"All the more reason to bother you soon, then. Take care."

He continued to grin and bear it until Aoba had vanished behind the next corner, then sighed heavily and put down his arm.  
There was simply no chance for him to get into Aoba's heart more than on the best-friend-level he had achieved, he knew it, he really did. But he was still unable to resign himself to the fact that it had come like this so easily.  
He needed a drink now - badly, but the prospect of getting wasted alone again including all the aftereffects didn't sit well with Koujaku, so he decided to head over to Mizuki's bar instead now. 

* * *

There weren't many people at the place yet, probably because this was no typical hour for people to flood the establishment, it was simply too early in the evening. Koujaku welcomed that situation, though and took a seat at the bar right in front of a Mizuki, who greeted him warmly. He was wearing bartender attire for a change, which probably meant that no customers for the tattoo parlor had made an appointment today, at least not after the usual hours. In case somebody showed up on the spur of the moment, Mizuki would probably leave the bar to one of his co-workers and go over the details with the customer in the back of the studio. But for now nobody with that intention showed up, so he polished some glasses in wait for orders behind the counter.

Koujaku hadn't even needed to ask for a drink when Mizuki had already placed a cocktail he knew Koujaku would like in front of him. Koujaku was silent and lost deep in thought while occasionally taking a sip of his drink. After having emptied his glass nearly completely, he finally started a conversation.

"Mizuki, can I ask you something?"

Mizuki smiled at him and gave him a nod.  
"Of course. What is it?"

"Well... you see... this..."  
Koujaku had started to gesticulate with his hands in a vague way like he was unsure how to explain what he meant with the right words.  
"This might sound kinda weird, but... Aoba... Aoba is... pretty attractive even from a man's point of view, right?"

Mizuki rose a curious eyebrow.  
"Where did that question come from now?"

Koujaku lifted a hand and shook his head.  
"No, no, don't think about it, just answer me."

Mizuki was silent for a moment, but then started to think aloud.  
"From a man's point of view, huh? Well, if you put it like that... Yeah, I think you're right, he's attractive even then. Well, I'd rather call it handsome, though. Why do you ask?"

Koujaku cringed and let out his breath from beyond gritted teeth.  
"Ugh... Well... you see... I've been friends with Aoba for so long-"

"Since practically forever.", Mizuki underlined Koujaku's statement like he knew where this was going, but irritated Koujaku, who only agreed with a hesitant "Y-yeah.".  
Mizuki continued.  
"And now you suddenly realized that he's become handsome and that... blows your mind?"

"No!", Koujaku face-palmed, "God, no, it's just... that... I... Ugh..."  
He was really unsure how to phrase what he was thinking.

Mizuki tried to make a guessing game out of it.  
"You're worried he'd be snatched from the street because he's a hottie?"

"What? Who would dare to-No!"  
This was really confusing for him now, but Mizuki found his reactions hilarious.

"Ahahaha! It's so easy to mess with you today, it nearly scares me. How about you stop beating around the bush and get back into your mind that the two of us have been friends for a very long time now, too, Koujaku? You don't need to hum and haw around me how weird or crazy or whatever your thoughts might be like."  
He polished the glass to a shine, put it away and reached out for the next one in wait for Koujaku to properly sort out his thoughts.

Koujaku exhaled with relief but was still pretty insecure about the whole matter.  
"Hah... you're right. It's just... This is just kinda going against all of what I usually feel and that's what weirds me out the most. I'm... kinda scared about those feelings."

"You mean being attracted to Aoba?"

"Eh?!", Koujaku blushed and lifted a shivering hand to cover his beet-red face with, "How? I mean...! You...?"

"Kou-ja-kuuu...!", Mizuki booed with a laid-back look on his face, "Don't tell me the discussion wasn't headed in that direction? I'm working at a bar, I'm used to listen to what people have to say and to memorize such things. If it eases your mind, then I'll be blunt and say it: I'm kind of attracted to Aoba, too."

"WHAT?!"  
Koujaku's hands hit the counter with a loud bang as he sprung to his feet.

Mizuki just laughed at his reactions and waved a hand in front of his face.  
"Haha, no worries, I won't try anything. I'm just saying it's easy to be attracted to him. He's got nice looks and a good character, he's simply very likable, or rather it's hard not to like him. Therefore I think I can understand people falling for him even though they are straight as a line under normal circumstances."

Koujaku retook his seat and looked a little like a beaten dog.  
"...Was... that a side-glance at me just now?"

"Maybe?", Mizuki said in a mocking tone before shrugging his shoulders, "I'm just saying I don't think different of you even if you harbour those kinds of feelings for Aoba."

"Gh..."

"It's just... Uhm..."  
Mizuki put the other polished glass aside and looked Koujaku in the eye with a serious look on his face.  
"Maybe you haven't realized it yet but... Aoba seems to have found somebody he likes already... Let's say... a special somebody?"

Koujaku sighed.  
"I know."

"Oh."

He sighed again, this time it sounded like he had resigned himself to the situation.  
"I realized what my feelings for Aoba were when I saw them together. That's the problem."

"Oh...", Mizuki blinked, "Oh! ...Ouch."

"Yeah...", he sighed again and Mizuki didn't really know what to say this time.

"That's... Well that's really hard for you then, huh?"

Koujaku nodded once.  
"Yeah... I mean... I've been with Aoba since he was a kid... Even if we were separated for a while, that feeling of wanting to be close to him never faded from my heart. But I didn't think any of it. It might have lingered in the back of my mind, but I never allowed myself to even think in that direction. Aoba and I are best friends and I like it that way. It's just... seeing him being... taken away from me now it's... It kinda... hurt."

Mizuki understood what Koujaku was trying to say and tried to soften the problem.  
"Well, it's not like he's boarded a plane and headed overseas now, though. He's still here. You can still see him whenever you want, Koujaku."

Koujaku grumbled, not really pleased with the situation even under that light.  
"I know. It's just... Him being with somebody else like that was like showing me what I could have had, had I tried to get closer to him on that level. I could have been the one by his side now. But instead I'm sitting here, pitying myself for lost chances. It's so frustrating."

Mizuki made an acknowledging humming noise and grabbed for Koujaku's empty glass, filling up another one with a stronger cocktail this time.  
"I don't believe I've ever seen a person more in need of a drink than you are now, Koujaku. So how about it: The next round is on the house."

Koujaku laughed a little as he reached for the glass.  
"Thanks, Mizuki."

"No problem." 

* * *

Time passed with Koujaku emptying his glass in silence and ordering some other drinks to follow the ones he already had. The alcohol didn't affect him much today it seemed and so Koujaku resumed his talk with Mizuki from before after a while.

"Say, Mizuki, do you know anything about that oddball, Clear, and Aoba?"

Mizuki made a thinking noise as his eyes moved from one side to the other.  
"I know that they are an item. It's hard not to see it to be honest."

"Eh? It's that obvious?"

Mizuki shrugged at Koujaku's surprise.  
"Well, I mean, they're pretty much always together nowadays. Clear brings Aoba his lunch to Heibon and then I saw them prowling the streets holding hands that one day. Aoba didn't even look embarrassed, or anything, he seemed to thoroughly enjoy it - can you believe that? An easily to fluster guy like Aoba holding hands with another guy in the open.", He shook his head as he grinned, "He must really like that Clear a lot, but maybe it's because he's a pretty nice guy from what I've seen from him so far and he always makes Aoba laugh."

"Is... that so... I had no idea."  
Koujaku's answer was cold and grumpy, not hiding that Mizuki had commited a blunder with that statement.

Mizuki answered him sheepishly and tried to dodge the subject a little.  
"Well, if they don't pass the street where you open up shop or something it's hard to keep up on something like that I guess. Plus it's not like I'm always the person seeing them, but the members of Dry Juice kinda keep me up on what Aoba's doing, since we're friends, so maybe news about him reach my ear earlier than yours."

"Tche...!", Koujaku spat out that sound, "And here I thought I knew pretty much everything about Aoba there is to know. But I tried not to bother him that last year or so, I really tried to cut back on that worrying part hard."

Mizuki's pricked up his ears at that.  
"What, you mean the time when you hung around my bar pretty much every day, whining about how worried you were about what would happen to Aoba?"

"Ugh!"  
Koujaku flinched.

Mizuki laughed back.  
"Hehe, you are a worrywart when it comes to Aoba and you'll always be one. It lies in your nature."

Koujaku grumbled under his breath and then demanded to be poured another drink, to wich Mizuki agreed with another laugh. He sure hoped Koujaku would be okay, though. It was hard to judge from the outside how much all of that had really affected him. 

* * *

After a while another customer entered the bar of the Black Needle, ignoring the two men talking at the bar. The young man seemed busy studying the various paintings of tattoos and photographs of former clients pinned to the walls of the studio. He didn't look like somebody who would like to show off his skin with a tattoo on it, covered up in clothes and bandages like he was. But a tattoo didn't have to be visible on first glance either, so he could be a possible customer. At least that was what Mizuki thought while he watched the young man out of the corners of his eyes. He seemed pretty young, too, but probably not too young to get a tattoo. Mizuki didn't want to leave Koujaku alone now of all times, though, so he kind of hoped that the guy would be here to get a drink instead, but judging from his appearance he might not be old enough for that yet.

Koujaku, who had turned quite red under the alcohol's influence by now and who began to slur slightly due to the alcohol finally taking an effect on him, suddenly banged his fists on the counter and shouted in Mizuki's direction, giving him a start.  
"And then there's that Noiz-brat! That beansprout! Can you believe what nerve he had today?! Showed up at my shop and tried to mess with me! Can't believe that brat! I hate that guy!"  
He sunk back into his chair and his fingers made some kind of grabbing gesture, like he tried to catch hold of something invisible.  
"But his hair... feels so goddamn nice to the touch...!"  
A whining noise escaped his throat and he threw his hands up in despair before letting them fall on top of his head and lamenting incomprehensible words facing the counter's surface.

Mizuki furrowed his brows and had a somewhat deterred look on his face before patting Koujaku on his shoulder.  
"Okay, that's it. We're at the point where you need to stop drinking and go home, Koujaku."

"I don't wanna...!", the other nagged and ignored Mizuki trying to shake him now.

The young man who had turned around to look what the commotion was about when he heard Koujaku holler earlier, had an amused look on his face as he drew closer, taking a seat right next to the sunken down Koujaku.

"This sounds interesting. Can I join in?"

Mizuki blinked now that he could see him up close.  
Where had he seen that face and getup before again?  
Then he remembered.  
"Wait, aren't you with Ruff Rabbit?"

Being the leader of the largest team for Ribsteez, Mizuki naturally was against the competing Rhyme teams that had caused him to loose more and more members to convert to the virtual game instead of defending their turf on the streets of Midorijima in reality. And Noiz had just walked in here like it was no big deal that Rib and Rhyme teams usually clashed like fire and water.

"What do you want?", Mizuki's greeting was cold and he only held back on having Noiz thrown out of his bar immediately since he had no desire to provoke a quarrel out of no apparent reason other than for Noiz to be here.

Noiz' easygoing behaviour gave way to a slightly worried face and he looked over to Koujaku who still had no reaction towards him even if he was this close now.  
"I just came to mess with the old man a bit, but I guess I'm too late now. He seems to be out of it already."  
Noiz gave Koujaku's ribs a probing poke with his index finger, but the other didn't react to it other than to moan a little. He seemed to have fallen asleep quite soundly on the spot.

Mizuki rose one eyebrow upon the way Noiz acted around his friend, but stayed cautious.  
"Yeah, so?"

"So... I'm offering to take him home then."  
Noiz looked up to Mizuki like a child begging to get a cookie from the cookie jar and Mizuki was completely baffled.

"What?"  
What was up with this fellow? Why did he act like that around Koujaku in the frist place?  
"And why would you do this? Don't tell me you and Koujaku are friends now. He just complained to me about you harassing him today."

"I did?"  
Noiz looked like some naive little boy, but then remembered the kiss he had given Koujaku and grinned a little dirtily with his eyes set on the back of his sleeping companion.  
"Ah, that... Well... I just made a little fun of him, no big deal. And as for why I'd like to bring him home... Let's just say I still owe him a favour."

"Hmmm?"  
Mizuki wasn't convinced by Noiz' words, but the problem was that Koujaku had fallen asleep on his counter and he couldn't stay there. Just closing up the bar to bring Koujaku home himself wasn't an option either, though, since he didn't have that much staff at hand at the moment and judging by the time, his bar would be flooded with customers in about half an hour, maybe even earlier, since a few guests already entered the bar right as he was thinking about what to do now. Mizuki didn't trust Noiz, or rather he didn't want to trust him, so there was probably only one way out of this situation.  
"Forget it, I doubt a pushover like you could lift Koujaku if his life depended on it, much less bring him home. There's a room upstairs with a bed in it that's usually only used by me and typically out of limits, but I'll make an exception for Koujaku since he's my friend. As for you... I guess I'll have you leave now if you don't want to order anything."

Noiz looked like a kicked puppy while his eyes still hung on Koujaku's sleeping form.

Mizuki was surprised to see this guy act like that, having envisioned Noiz to just rise from his seat and declare that it couldn't be helped then. But the way he looked at Koujaku...  
Then it hit him.  
"Don't tell me..."

"Eh?"  
Noiz looked at him warily, like he would flee the scene immediately if Mizuki voiced even one more word in the direction he was thinking.

Mizuki just grinned, though, and shook his head.  
"Nothing. I think I'll have to take you on that offer to carry Koujaku to a bed, after all, since there are lots of people going to swarm in here any minute."  
He jerked his chin in the direction of the entryway behind Noiz, who turned around halfway on his chair to see people coming in and greeting Mizuki from the door already.  
"That said, my offer still stands to use the room upstairs. I guess I'll have to make an exception for you as well this time, since I need someone to watch over Koujaku. I don't want him to choke on his own vomit or something like that. Or to ruin my sheets for that matter."

Noiz blinked.  
What was this Mizuki-guy up to being all friendly to him now?  
But to be honest it didn't matter so long as he didn't get in the way between him and the hairdresser, so...  
"Okay. Thanks then."

Noiz got up from his chair and put one of Koujaku's arms around his neck and holding on to it before wrapping his free hand around Koujaku's waist and tried to get him up from his chair, but had a little trouble with that. Mizuki circled around the counter and helped Noiz with Koujaku until they got him off the chair and then Mizuki led the way to the exit of the bar and then handed Noiz a small key.  
"Go up the stairs halfway and then open up the door on the left. Better lock up behind you afterwards. If anything's wrong come down and tell me immediately, got it?"

Noiz nodded and shoved himself and Koujaku past the customers coming into the bar to reach the stairs. Koujaku was heavy on his shoulders and he was not very helpful in getting him from A to B. Noiz really wouldn't have made it to Koujaku's home that way, so he was glad he didn't have to go that far now. Reaching the small door in the middle of the stairway, Noiz turned the key in the keyhole and unlocked the door, relocking it as soon as he had dragged Koujaku's sleeping body inside of the room.  
It really was just a small bedroom, bit it still fit in one full-size bed in the middle framed by two little bedside cabinets on either side. There was another tiny room with a toilet and a shower in it as well, it was like a small hotel room. Maybe Mizuki used to rent it to his customers and the whole thing about the room being private was just a lie so as to not give Noiz the idea of wanting to stay here, too.

Whatever the case, Noiz brought Koujaku over to the bed and laid him down on the mattress. The taller man was still sleeping soundly, not unconvinced in the slightest by having been dragged around like a heavy sack of potatoes by the other. Noiz grinned and rolled his shoulder - heck Koujaku had been heavy, but he had leant his whole weight on him in lack of being unable to support himself. And Noiz had offered to do it, so no whining then.

What now?

Noiz had been driven to trying to find out more about Koujaku since the other had treated his wounds the other day. Therefore he had visited him at his hairdressing shop and demanded to be treated as a customer, even though it was not necessary for his hair to be cut yet. But he had to get close enough to Koujaku to slip him one of his cubes if he wanted to trail him later - the kiss he had given him had been both, practical to distract Koujaku from Noiz' maneuver of passing on his spying cube to him, and a way to have a little fun with him at the same time. Not to mention that he had been curious as to how the lips of Midorijima's most rumored womanizer might taste. He couldn't remember much about it, though, since Koujaku hadn't reacted to him at all at that time. But that only fueled his interest to try kissing him again later.  
As for his offer to bring Koujaku home... that had been on the spur of the moment since Noiz hadn't thought Koujaku to fall asleep over a few drinks, but if he was asleep already, Noiz might have been able to take him to his home and get some info on him from there. No such luck, though.

Looking back at the man in question, Noiz noticed that Koujaku lay on top of his scabbard, which would probably hurt his back if he slept on it. Aside from that, Koujaku's kimono would wrinkle and be nothing but a huge mess after he woke up if he kept it on, so it probably would be better to take these items off of him. Therefore Noiz leant over the sleeping man and slid his scabbard with sword off his shoulder, putting the thing next to the bedside cabinet. Next, Noiz was after his kimono, lifting Koujaku's arms one after the other and tried to roll his heavy body around to get the kimono out of the way, but the obi was still tied in place, so he had to unknot that first. To reach the knot he had to turn Koujaku on his belly, since the obi was tied in the back. Working on the tie with impatient fingers, Noiz cursed under his breath.

"God, how does this bow even work? And why the hell do you even wear it like that? Isn't that rather girly? I mean the obi is alright for a man but that bow... And that pattern on the kimono, old man, why would you wear something like this? It looks like a woman's kimono, you know?"  
Well, maybe it was because of the floral pattern with the sparrow on top of it. The kanji used for Koujaku's name meant "red sparrow" after all - that much even Noiz had been able to find out with no problem - and the kimono he wore was red with a sparrow included in the pattern.  
"Tche, it's like you wrapped yourself up in your own name, old man."

He shook his head. Maybe it was some kind of quirk or something. He had finally managed to open up the obi and unwrapped Koujaku's waist with some effort to get it off of him. Then he was finally able to strip off his kimono as well, but as soon as Koujaku's arms slipped out of his sleeves, they revealed his back to be tattooed with giant red flowers.

"What the...?"

Noiz didn't know that Koujaku's body was decorated that way, plus the flowers didn't seem to be the end of it, judging by Koujaku's right arm that was covered in some kind of black tribal motif as well.

Suddenly, Koujaku made a choking noise and Noiz thought he might puke at first, but then he noticed that the problem might be the large black cover with a red tassel around his neck. That was probably not supposed to be left on while sleeping, at least not when lying on your stomach, so Noiz brushed Koujaku's hair out of the way to reveal some clasps in the back of his neck, opened them and took off the oversized-collar-like item.  
Looking over Koujaku's body, he wondered whether there might be even more tattoos hidden behind some articles of clothing.

"Okay, fuck this, might as well take off everything else while I'm at it this time."

That said, Noiz removed the black bands around Koujaku's arms, his sandals and his jeans as well, leaving him naked aside from the bandages around his arms and upper body and his underwear.

Noiz sighed, the action of undressing an unconscious person had worn him out to some extent. But it had been kind of worth it, too, since now he could see that Koujaku's black tribal tattoo didn't end at his right arm or chest, but trailed down all the way to his right thigh, only partially covered by the bandages around his torso. The tribal was then continued from his right knee down to his ankle. There was a red letter embedded into a circle on his leg and on his shoulder, too.  
Noiz pondered whether there might be a deeper meaning behind his tattoo, when he heard a faint knocking sound at the door.

He got up, unlocked the door and let a small cube inside before closing and locking the door again.  
"Finished?"

"P!", the cube answered in a high-pitched voice and hopped into Noiz' hand as soon as he knelt down to collect it.

"So you got all of the pictures in the studio down there? Even the ones in the back room?"

"P!", the cube squeaked again, "Does Noiz want to see the new database?"

"Actually, yeah. I didn't think I would need info like that so soon, but... I'm glad I took it as a precaution anyways."  
You never knew what kind of information you might need as an information broker after all, so Noiz had made it a habit to collect any kind of data on whatever place he currently was at just in case.

Noiz went over to the bed and placed his cubed Allmate on his shoulder while he gave Koujaku's back an eager look.

"I need information on these tattoos. No blabbering, though - info mode only."

"Roger!", the cube answered him, "Inquiry mode switched on! What does Noiz want to know?"

"Let's start with the biggest part on his back. What are these flowers? A lotus maybe?"

"Negative, it's peonies.", the cube corrected him, "Peonies in art can symbolize honor, wealth, masculine bravery or sexual power."

Noiz quit the answer with a humming noise.  
"...It's a pretty big tattoo... it covers almost his entire body. Must have cost a lot. Was he able to pay for something like that with a hairdresser salary?"

"Uncertain.", the Allmate answered in its squeaky, mechanical voice while it scanned Koujaku's back, "Tattoo doesn't seem to be made recently. Size of tattoo is reminiscent of a tattooed body suit. Social classes known for something like that: yakuza, circus performers, admirers of traditional Japanese tattooing."

Noiz had to chuckle at the circus performer bit.  
"Well I think we can rule out circus performers. For an admirer of tattoos he hides them too much behind his clothes. So... yakuza? Wouldn't really picture the old man like one of those either... What about the tribals and that symbol inside of that circle on his shoulder and below the knee?"

"Searching." A screen popped up in front of Usagimodoki and it ran down a list of symbols in search of a fitting answer. "Information found: Symbol is most likely the Siddham letter 'a' in Buddhism, it's a seed syllable for mantras. I recite: 'The Wisdom associated with "a" is that which can create or negate, and is associated with the letter's linguistic purpose as a negator in front of a word.'"

"God, this is confusing.", Noiz waved a hand in front of his Allmate and shook his head, "Okay, cut down the info stream on that. How about the tattooist? Was it done in this studio? He seems to know the guy working here quite well."

"Negative, style won't match.", Usagimodoki answered him promptly this time as various shots from Mizuki's tattoo studio and his bar popped up on a virtual screen and the Allmate skimmed through the pictures in an awfully fast pace until it suddenly stopped at one entry, "Correction: style of one picture matches, but doesn't match up with the rest of any of the motifs displayed inside of this tattoo parlor."

"One of them matches? Which one?"  
Not having looked at it at first, he inspected the picture on the screen in front of his face now that his curiosity was piqued. It was a shot of a framed picture sitting next to the register of Mizuki's bar.  
"Is there a tattooist known for this kind of style in Midorijima?"

"Searching... Match found: Style resemblance matches the style of a tattoo artist named 'Ryuuhou'. Method of tattooing: Tebori. He is currently residing in Flame Willow of Platinum Jail. Rumoured to charge very high sums for his services. Contact info required?"

"No, that's enough for now.", Noiz tried to evaluate all of the new information and to piece together the whole picture around Koujaku with what he had collected so far, but then he blinked, "No, wait, what's 'Tebori'?"

Usagimodoki returned to its mechanical voice-only answering mode as it stated the facts.  
"Tebori: traditional Japanese tattooing technique where the ink is applied to the skin manually by the use of a row of needles put on a bamboo handle. Very time-consuming and supposedly most painful method of tattooing."

"I see.", Noiz blinked and took the cube off his shoulder, "That's all for now, you can go to sleep mode."

Usagimodoki answered him with a "Roger!" and then shut off for the time being.

Noiz sighed and thought out loud: "So we have the fact that the old man probably didn't have enough money if he was a hairdresser at that time to get himself a tattoo of that scale done by a guy who is rich enough to reside in Platinum Jail. Plus he's trying to hide this tattoo all the time judging by his style of clothing, so there's something fishy about the fact that he has it in the first place. Plus... it was the most... painful way of getting it done? ...Why?"

Noiz looked at Koujaku's sleeping form with his relaxed face and absentmindedly lightly moved his middle finger down Koujaku's spine.

"You don't strike me as someone loving pain, Mr. hairdresser."


	3. Chapter 3

Even after the rush of information he had received from his Allmate had swashed over him, Noiz couldn't piece the parts together so they made sense immediately, so he made a mental note to himself to do some further research on the subject later on. For now he put the matter back since he deemed it useless to think too much about a problem that wasn't completely laid bare in all of its details in front of him yet. His view was still fixed on the peonies glowing in their red beauty from Koujaku's back though.  
Even if it proved to be true that Koujaku was a yakuza that was of no importance to Noiz. Nobody was able to pick if it came to what family you were born into, however fucked up they might be, Noiz knew that very well himself. The thing that interested him way more was the fact that it must have taken an insane amount of time and therefore nearly endless willpower to endure the pain that came with tattooing an entire body.  
What had driven Koujaku to get such a tattoo done if he was hiding it all the time now? Why had he chosen to suffer? Had he chosen at all? Maybe it was some kind of thing that was expected if you were a member of a yakuza clan or something. Noiz believed to have read somewhere that it was kind of a common thing for yakuza people to have tattoos and that they were proud of it... and not allowed to public baths for that matter. Ah, that last bit of information surely belonged into the category: not really useful data.

Noiz shook his head.  
Hadn't he already decided not to think too hard about that since he hadn't gathered enough info on it yet?  
Sometimes he just couldn't help himself and his brain worked on and on, developing theories further and further without him actively willing it and before he knew it he had done nothing but thought all day long. That ability had saved him from going mad when he was a child locked away all by himself, but now it annoyed him sometimes.

He sighed.  
What was he going to do now?  
He could simply go home if he wanted to, there was not really anything else to do here.  
But for some reason he couldn't take his eyes off Koujaku's back even now. These flowers... they were magnificent somehow, nearly hypnotizing. The whole artwork was simply beautiful. He liked it a lot for some reason, even if he wasn't that much a fan of flowers or art in general.

Koujaku turning in his sleep to lie on his back now forced Noiz' look away from the flower tattoo and his eyes began to take in every detail of Koujaku's bare body instead, as he lay there on the mattress right in front of him. He had a nice face for a guy - aesthetically speaking - and a well-built body. Not too much muscle, not too less. He was not too tall, not too small. Nice, long fingers... He seemed, well... rather handsome? Was that the right word to use?  
Noiz wasn't accustomed to giving compliments even in his thoughts, so he wasn't quite sure about that. But yeah, Koujaku was attractive, he could give him that much credit at least.  
So what? He wasn't usually attracted to guys. Well, honestly he wasn't usually attracted to anyone. It was weird, really weird. Noiz rarely had any interest in people other than himself, since he deemed most of them boring to no end and for relationships to be a bother.

One of the rare exceptions to that rule had been Aoba, though, since he had betrayed Noiz' expectations twice so far. The first time was the fact that Aoba had emerged victorious against him in Rhyme even though Noiz had been sure to be the better player and Aoba's technique had been incredibly weak. Secondly, Aoba hadn't matched up to his image when compared to the rumours about him as the player "Sly blue", who was supposed to be a self-assured, no-nonsense player as far as Noiz' information database was considered. Yet, Aoba had won against him. It irked Noiz, it was a thing completely beside his expectations and usually Noiz' speculations were spot-on. Hell, he made a living out of that by providing people with things that were about to happen according to his judgement and information, like with the locations Usui would open up a Rhyme match for example. And there Aoba was: an error in his calculation. He had to find out what made this blue-haired guy so special, hence why he had broken into his home back then, rummaging in his belongings to collect more data. It was of no use, though, so Aoba simply had to give him the chance of a rematch, Noiz was set on this.  
Aside from his interest in Aoba on that level, if Noiz were to judge him by his appearance, Aoba was a pretty guy, too, from Noiz' perception of other people - maybe a bit scrawny but no less attractive. Not that Noiz was running around judging other people by their level of attractiveness, he probably couldn't care less about how anybody looked, even if he tried. But he could deem a flower pretty, so he could deem a person pretty as well, end of story. It made no difference to Noiz which gender a person had. If he liked something about another person that simply was the case. He usually didn't dive into questioning himself why he liked whatever about whomever, it was rare enough that his interest was aroused on its own.

Right now, things like outward appearance or gender had faded from the spotlight in view of the fact that somebody Noiz had thought it impossible to get along with had given him new hope and piqued his curiosity.

Koujaku lay in front of him on his bed, snoring a little while he slept it off. He would patter occasionally, but it only added to Noiz' amusement as he watched him sleep and pondered how to get closer to this man.  
The only method Noiz knew aside from Rhyme to establish some kind of a connection to people was of a physical nature. Noiz hadn't slept around that much due to a simple lack of interest in other human beings, but he knew the basics of intercourse and he was pretty sure that as soon as you did it with somebody else they automatically would open up to you one way or another, showing you their dirty side, their lust, their wishes, all of the things hidden by their usual day-to-day-behavior, cast aside so as for you to make them feel good - sex was a rather selfish act after all.  
Of course they might say things like "I want you to feel good, too.", but Noiz' ability to feel was rather limited and what was he supposed to tell them in that kind of situation? "Sorry, no can do, can't feel it anyways, so skip the act?" Well, wouldn't that ruin everything Noiz had worked hard for beforehand to get a glimpse on the other person's personality? So in essence he pretended not to care if they acted like that, or if he felt like it, he told them to be rough with him, bite him, claw at him, so that his limited perceptive ability would still allow his body to feel at least a tiny bit of that kind of emotion that seemed to run through the other's body like wildfire. Some of them had been opposed to it, deeming him a pain-loving weirdo and sometimes even up and left him hanging after they already had their fun. Human relationships usually weren't worth it for Noiz, so he stayed away from others.

But why did he think that Koujaku of all people might be different from the rest of them now?  
A guy that was a rumoured womanizer and seemed shallow to no ends on first glance when you met him.

Well, all it had taken to awake Noiz' interest in him had been a few words. But those few words had meant the world to Noiz and echoed in his head even now: "You just have a body that won't listen to all the sensations out there. That makes you different, but it doesn't make you a monster."

Noiz felt his heart beating faster as he remembered Koujaku's words. That man had probably no clue how important that statement had been for Noiz, but his urge to get closer to him began to bug him then and did so ever since. It was maddening.  
He wanted to know more about Koujaku, more about this weird guy, who hadn't given him that usual look like he was some kind of alien, just because he couldn't feel what other people could. It was weird, but that was very likely the reason Koujaku suddenly seemed so appealing to Noiz that he could barely stand it sometimes.  
And earlier when Koujaku had cut his hair... his fingers had massaged Noiz' scalp, he knew it. He could... feel it only faintly by the light pressure put on his skin, but he knew the touch was there and it was gentle, it was so to make him feel good and he... had appreciated it, had just accepted it without his usual denial.  
It was mysterious to him, truly.

Turning his eyes back to his object of desire, Koujaku took deep breaths with his lips moving slightly from time to time while he was asleep. The longer he watched him, the more Noiz grew fascinated with those lips somehow and the more he thought about it, the more he wanted to kiss him.

Well okay, he already had kissed him once, but Noiz had the feeling that didn't really count back then. It wasn't something he had been able to enjoy properly. He had just done it for fun, not because he had genuinely wanted to do it. It was more like... a greeting of some sorts - or a farewell in that case.

How would it be like to kiss Koujaku for real, he wondered?

How would he taste right now?  
How hot would it be inside of his mouth?  
Was he even going to open it for him to let him in?  
Would he answer his kiss this time?  
Would it... feel good?  
Would he be able to feel anything at all?  
Noiz believed to know what a ticklish feeling was, so would it tickle then?  
Prickle?  
Hot?  
Cold?  
Which was it going to be?

He wanted to kiss him so badly...  
He wanted to feel something.

Noiz was nearly in a trance as he crawled on top of the bed, hovering over Koujaku's sleeping body in the process. His fingers lightly touched the other's lips while he imagined how soft and warm they must feel - his fingers were unable to pass on all of that information to his brain after all, even if their skin touched. Nevertheless, Noiz was excited and lightly bit his lower lip before wetting both of his lips with his tongue as he brought his face closer to Koujaku's.  
He exhaled nervously, then inhaled sharply, shortly holding his breath before uttering a word he had never used in front of the other before.

"Kh...", it was kind of hard, so he had to try again, "Kou... jaku."

"Mh..."  
Noiz' efforts earned him a stir from the other man and he mumbled in his sleep.  
"Ao... ba..."

Noiz' eyes widened, but then he had to chuckle.  
"Heh...? Thinking about him even in your sleep? What kind of friends are you?"

His smile faded as he traced Koujaku's lips with his fingers again, this time he lightly pressed his index finger between Koujaku's lips, wetting his fingertip a little in the process. Then he bent down even further, bringing their lips close enough to give Koujaku's mouth a quick lick, then a peck.  
"Hey... will you... let me in? ...Koujaku?"

Koujaku's brows drew together and he moaned again.  
"Aoba..."  
Suddenly, he threw an arm around Noiz' neck and drew him into a hot kiss.

Noiz' couldn't comprehend what was happening at first, but then he could feel his mouth being plundered by the other's tongue and Koujaku's heat seeping into him from his mouth. Koujaku was a good kisser, even in his sleep and wet noises started filling the air as their kiss grew more and more heated. Noiz was nearly helpless against him as he slowly drowned in the affection he was given through his mouth, while his spine sent goosebumps and shivers all over Noiz' back, but at the same time he could faintly feel his cheeks flush from the inside out, making them redden on his pale skin.

When he was completely out of breath, he tried to wriggle out of Koujaku's one-armed embrace and to draw back, but used too much force and ended up tumbling out of the bed and falling onto the floor, landing on his butt.  
Covering his violated mouth with one hand, Noiz panted heavily for a moment and then grinned like a madman.

"Is that a way to kiss your 'best friend', Mr. hairdresser?"

Just as he had said it and was about to chuckle, his laugh died in his throat when his heart stung suddenly. Noiz wasn't sure why that had happened, he had gotten what he had wanted after all. That kiss was totally worth it. But there was something that irked him, something didn't sit right with him at all. Glancing around the room lost in thought for a moment, he was disturbed in his train of thoughts when he began to recognize a pulling feeling in his loins and looked down to find a very prominent bulge in his pants.

"Fuck...!"

He couldn't believe it. He got a boner from just a kiss. What the hell was wrong with him that he got so turned on by this guy?  
Well it had been a fantastic kiss after all, but still, it wasn't much compared to how much foreplay was usually needed to get Noiz into the mood.

The older man on the bed looked quite innocent after what he had done to him only a few seconds ago. Noiz was kinda annoyed by that fact.  
He sighed and scratched at his hat before removing it and tossing it to the floor, then looked back up to the bed.

"Well, since I've gotten this far anyways... I might go a bit further while I'm at it."

That said, Noiz loosened his tie and threw it to the floor to his hat, before he climbed back on the bed and gave Koujaku's body a last appreciating look before he bent down and began to slowly kiss his face all over, including licking at his left ear. Then he brushed away Koujaku's hair from the right side of his face to reach his right ear as well, revealing his facial tattoo in the process. Noiz found it oddly sexy how the tribal bent around Koujaku's face and transitioned into the rest of the tattoo without actually being connected to it. The lines curved around his body so nicely, like he was a living work of art.

Noiz had to hit the breaks on his own thoughts right there.  
What was Koujaku?  
A painting?  
He was a living human being, for fuck's sake!  
Well... a living human being with nice decorations put on top of his skin...

Noiz simply had to nibble on Koujaku's right ear and his neck before trailing down his throat with his tongue until he reached Koujaku's nipples. The right one was partially covered in the tattoo as well, so a needle must have stung it once right there...  
Noiz experimentally licked it, bit and sucked at it until it got hard and he got a shudder and a small moan out of the other man.  
He smiled and gave the other bud some attention with his fingers while he watched Koujaku's reactions - he moaned a little irritated.

This was fun.

Noiz hadn't dared to remove the bandages around Koujaku's torso and arms, since he didn't know if they were meant to hide something like his tattoos from view or were really supposed to cover up some kind of injury. The ones around Koujaku's lower thighs and feet were gone, though, since they clearly had been only part of his getup with Koujaku's jeans being stuck inside of them and all.  
Still, Noiz couldn't be sure what lay below the other strips of fabric, since Koujaku's body was scarred here and there. The scars didn't look fresh, but Koujaku was a Rib team leader after all, so who knew if there weren't any fresh wounds below the bandages after all?

Noiz caught himself tracing some of the other's scars with his fingers, interested in how the skin might feel like, but then he had to laugh at himself.  
How would he know?  
His fingers wouldn't tell him that kind of information, since the difference in skin tissue wouldn't be significant enough for his own skin to detect much difference in it.  
Heck, he couldn't even tell if Koujaku's skin was warm or cold - it was annoying.  
No wait, he could tell if he licked him, since his tongue still worked in recognizing heat and cold after all.  
So he tasted Koujaku's skin again.

Ah, it was warm. Maybe not as warm as Noiz had thought it to be, but the other lay there naked with no blanket for a while now, so of course his body would have lost some of its heat by now.

Koujaku's breath was interrupted by low gasps and irritated moans for a while now as Noiz continued to explore his body. He had left out the bandaged upper area of his torso, but his pelvic area was only covered by his underwear right now. Earlier when Noiz had undressed him to have a look at his tattoo he had half-expected for Koujaku to wear some sort of traditional, Japanese underwear like a Fundoshi or something, but no, it was just briefs... well tight ones that clung to his genitals nicely at least.  
Noiz hooked his fingers in the briefs' waistline and pulled them down slowly to reveal his already half-hard dick and Noiz found himself grinning about the fact that he had gotten Koujaku so far with relatively little effort.

Looking at his face from below, he could see that Koujaku's cheeks had reddened slightly and with his irritated, furrowed brows he looked nicely confused. Maybe he would even wake up at some point, but that was fine for Noiz, as well.

Shifting his attention back to Koujaku's lower regions, Noiz was really tempted to see how far he could go before Koujaku would wake up and how exactly he would react when he found out that he had gotten aroused even when being touched by a guy - it must be something completely new to him since he seemed to prefer women over all else. But he did imagine Aoba in his sleep, too, so... maybe it wasn't that unfamiliar a sensation to him after all. He had no clue how far Koujaku might have gone with his 'best friend' after all. But a mouth was a mouth, if the person that gave head to you was male or female wasn't much difference in that aspect.

Noiz was simply curious what would come out of it and gave Koujaku's penis an experimental lick from root to top, then nibbled on his glans before taking the whole thing into his mouth and started to suck him off.

The young man wasn't really sure whether what he was doing was making the other feel good, but judging from the way Koujaku started to gasp in his sleep while his member grew in size and hardness in response to Noiz' doing, he probably performed alright here. He stroked Koujaku's shaft with his tongue while he slowly moved his head and pressed down on his skin with his lips, occasionally even touching him with his teeth, but not hard enough to bite him. Biting a man down there might be enjoyable for Noiz since the harsh pressure was the only way for him to get something out of a blowjob at all, but for someone else it probably was quite painful and Noiz didn't want to hurt Koujaku right now.  
Still, it was hard to estimate how the other felt about his fellatio techniques since Koujaku was still asleep, or rather drifting between being asleep and trying to wake up in the meantime, judging from the way he turned his head from one side to the other while his facial expression was full of irritation and his breath hitched again and again.

Noiz exhaled through his nose with the realization that he could taste Koujaku's precum leaking from the tip of his penis by now. So the other was turned on quite a lot it seemed. The young man chuckled a bit before continuing to lavish the other's member with attention, his throat occasionally vibrated with a humming sound as he sucked him off. But just as he was getting really into it, a surprised gasp and a harsh "Oi!" threw him back to reality.

Koujaku had woken up and had propped himself up on his elbows, looking down at Noiz with irritation beyond the other's expectations.

"What... the hell... are you doing there?"  
Koujaku blinked hard once, twice, but he still couldn't believe that the image stayed the same no matter how hard he tried.

Noiz just looked up at him unfazed before he let go of Koujaku's cock in a way that allowed him to slide his tongue all over it as he took it out of his mouth.  
He grinned.  
"Well, what does it look like? I'm giving you head. Never heard of it?"

"Argh!"  
Koujaku sounded like a strangled cat and slapped a hand over his face.  
"I know WHAT you were doing, but WHY would you do this?"

Noiz pondered about how he should answer him, but then resolved to just poke Koujaku's erect member with the tip of his finger and answer him nonchalantly in a monotone voice.  
"You got a boner in your sleep, so I thought I'd give it some attention."

Koujaku cursed under his breath and looked at him furiously now, feeling way too sober for his own good.  
"You were messing with my body while I was asleep, simply because you could?"

"Precisely.", Noiz nodded, finding this answer preferable to explaining what exactly had driven him to what he had done. He looked up to Koujaku with a slightly shrewd smile on his lips.  
"Now, what do you want me to do? Do you want me to continue or do you want to take care of this yourself now?"

"Eh?"  
Koujaku still seemed awkwardly out of it and was not sure whether this was actually real or the continuation of a very weird dream he had.  
"Why would you even...?"  
He flinched and put a hand to his forehead, groaning.  
"Oh god, this headache's going to kill me."

Noiz chuckled and shifted between Koujaku's legs in a way that his hands lay on Koujaku's upper thigh and his cheek rested on top of his back of the hand.  
"Don't think too much then, it's a simple question."  
He teased Koujaku's still hard dick by circling its glans with the tip of his middle finger.  
"My mouth or your hand, which will it be?"

Koujaku flinched and stifled a moan that tried to escape his throat. But then he glared at Noiz with the most intimidating look he could muster right now.  
"I think I'd go soft the moment I'll see a guy giving me a blowjob, so no thank you. I'll take care of this myself now."

"Are you sure about that?"  
Noiz gave Koujaku's cock a short, lewd lick, making Koujaku gasp, before he grinned at him from below again.  
"So far it's standing upright quite alright, though."

"Ugh, you...!"  
Koujaku swallowed hard. His head still tried to make sense of what exactly was happening right now.  
Why was a guy... no, why was Noiz of all people so insistent on giving him head? Why had he even started doing it? Wasn't this going a bit too far to be some kind of joke?  
And why the hell had he even gotten hard from another man's mouth?  
Just imagining Noiz' lips on his dick was-No, wait, that was no imagination! The damn brat had really just started to lick the base of his cock like it was a fricking popsicle now! His tongue lapped at him and Koujaku felt his breath quicken.  
His hand reached out to Noiz' head to shove it away, but in the end he just weakly put it on top of his head and gave him a look like he simply couldn't comprehend the situation at all.

Noiz gave him a smile, startling Koujaku and making him exhale through his nose in astonishment.  
The brat could smile like that?  
Oh God, was he really going to take his whole cock into his mouth right now?  
Oh...  
Oh God...!

"Gh...!"  
It was so warm in Noiz' mouth. Warm and... moist.  
He could feel the other's lips pressing down on his shaft and his tongue swirling up and down his member. It felt good, really good, even if Noiz lacked any distinct technique. It had been a while since Koujaku had been with anyone and then this whole situation with Aoba having a boyfriend and him dreaming all of those dirty things he would have liked to do with him instead had left Koujaku sexually frustrated all the more. And now he was being sucked off by Noiz of all people.  
That guy seemed to be really into it with his eyes closed and focusing on the movements of his mouth and lips while his fingers slightly massaged the base of Koujaku's cock now, too.

There was some odd feeling against his cock now and then, though, like something hard hit his flesh from time to time aside from Noiz' tongue. Ah, the brat was full of piercings, it wouldn't surprise Koujaku if his tongue was pierced as well. It was weirdly erotic to feel the hard nubs pressing against his skin.

Koujaku's breath became more and more heavy and the tingling sensation in Koujaku's loins and the ever growing pressure in his balls was starting to worry him.  
"O-Oi... Noiz...!", it was kind of weird to use the other's name instead of calling him names, but Koujaku's thoughts were too jumbled up to make up anything else right now.  
Noiz didn't react, so Koujaku grabbed him by his hair and pulled at it slightly, but still didn't get the other's attention.  
"I said hey!", Koujaku repeated a bit louder and shoved at Noiz' head with the palm of his hand more forcefully to make him open his eyes and look up at him.  
"I... I'm coming..."  
Koujaku was embarrassed about how weak his voice had sounded and felt his cheeks flush all the more, but Noiz only smiled at him with his eyes and didn't react other than to intensify his efforts around Koujaku's dick.

"O-oi, didn't you hear me, I said I'm co...! Ah...! Gnh... Mh..!"  
It was too late already and with Noiz not letting go of his cock, Koujaku unloaded all of his semen inside of the other's mouth.  
"Hah...! Hff..."  
Koujaku had trouble collecting his breath while his thighs still quivered from the waves of his climax. He looked down at Noiz in a daze and saw his semen spill from the other's lips, but heard him swallow all the same before he finally drew back and wiped at his mouth absentmindedly as he sat up on the bed.

"...Bitter.", Noiz commented, but still licked his come-dripping mouth with his tongue.

Koujaku was embarrassed and kind of enraged at the same time as he shouted at him.  
"You swallowed it?!"

Noiz' facial expression couldn't have been any calmer if he tried as he simply answered with him a "Yeah."

"Kh...!"  
Koujaku gritted his teeth as he let out his breath.  
"But why?"

Noiz avoided eye contact with Koujaku when he answered him.  
"The alternative was to get my clothes dirty."

"...I ...see.", Koujaku took his answer, but had the feeling that he had just been presented a very see-through lie and was no closer to getting anything that would make more sense out of that brat.

Examining him from top to bottom, his view fell upon Noiz' crotch. He sat in a way where he had drawn up one of his knees slightly to cross over the other, like he was trying to hide something from view, but Koujaku could still spot a very visible bulge in his pants. There was even a slightly wet spot on top of his pant's fabric - he was clearly turned on.

Koujaku let out a sigh through his nose.  
What was he supposed to do now? Returning the favour by giving him a handjob or something? But the sole thought of grabbing another guy's dick was turning him off to a point of making him sick. Well okay, his expectations had been betrayed earlier when Noiz had given him head and he hadn't gone soft but come instead, but...  
No! Why should he do this in the first place? Noiz had insisted on giving him head on his own accord and if he was turned on now that was none of Koujaku's business, but the brat's own damn fault!  
Still... that silence dragging on in the room right now and Noiz' eyes that would glance at him occasionally only for him to look away again like an embarrassed teenager who didn't know how to say what he wanted was so awkward it made Koujaku feel uneasy to no ends. He sighed deeply and scratched his head before he decided to man up and take the first step after all.

"Hey, what do you plan to do about this?", he hinted at Noiz' boner with a jerk of his chin and Noiz looked from him to his lap, biting his lower lip.  
"Want me to take care of that for you?"

"Eh?"  
Noiz was completely baffled by that offer and looked at Koujaku like he had just promised him something unbelievable.

Koujaku couldn't look him in the eye due to his embarrassment hitting maximum on his scale of endurability, so he answered him with his eyes fixed on an unknown point of the room.  
"I mean... I could give you a handjob or something... just as some kind of payback for what you did earlier. Not that you deserve it."

Noiz blinked, then grinned cheekily.  
"You want to repay me? Honestly? Even though I pretty much assaulted you in your sleep? How nice can you be?"

Koujaku turned his head and stared him directly in the eye, teeth gritted.  
"You can take the offer or leave the goddamn room right now. Your choice!"

It sounded more like a threat than an offer, but Noiz found it oddly cute, so he couldn't stop himself from grinning like an idiot.  
"I'll take you on that offer then, old man."  
He unzipped his pants and freed his erection, his already fully erect dick stood at attention and various piercings decorating it were suddenly visible as well.

Koujaku gulped at the sight. He clearly hadn't expected to see something like that, even though the rest of Noiz' skin was hinting at the fact that he wore a lot of metal all over his body. He grimaced at the mental image of how it might be to get yourself pierced down there of all places, but shuddered at the mere thought. Therefore he had trouble bringing his hand down to touch Noiz, as well.

Noiz sighed and didn't know if he should be insulted or find it funny how Koujaku reacted upon seeing his dick, but then he grinned at himself and decided to make it easier for the other. He shifted his body to sit back comfortably while leaning his weight on his elbows and on his lower back, opening up his legs as if to invite Koujaku in.  
"How about you touch me with something other than your hand if it's so hard on you then?"

"Eh?"  
Koujaku clearly couldn't follow him but was somewhat thankful that Noiz didn't seem to insist on getting a handjob from him. But what did he mean when he suggested to touch him with something other than his hand? Koujaku was pretty skeptical at that.  
"And what do you have in mind?"

Noiz moved his eyes to look down Koujaku's body until he arrived at his feet. He had already given them a look when he had removed Koujaku's sandals earlier and found his toes kind of sexy - they were pretty long and had a nice shape. He was a tall guy with pretty feet - it was kind of amusing.

Koujaku followed Noiz' view and then saw his grin, trying to put one and one together.  
"Eh? You can't mean...?"

"Yeah."  
Before Koujaku could escape his reach, Noiz grabbed his right foot and brought his own pelvis closer to it until his dick touched the sole of Koujaku's foot.

"Uwah...!"  
Koujaku's toes curled a bit at the weird sensation of Noiz' warm member against this part of his body and he made a slightly repulsed face, but he allowed Noiz to position his other food next to his erection as well, so they surrounded it now.

"Just move your feet and try to rub against me.", Noiz explained with an unusually exited grin on his face, "You can use your toes, soles, whatever you like, just create some friction."

Noiz was already pretty much aroused and the tip of his cock leaked precum already, which slid down his penis and reached Koujaku's toes.

"Kh...!"  
Koujaku exhaled through his teeth nervously before taking in tense, short breaths through his nose. This was on a whole new level of weirdness for him. Maybe using his hand would have been easier after all. Besides he could still feel the various piercings on Noiz' cock even with his feet; the somewhat cooler and harder metal clashing with the different warmth and hardness of Noiz' penis. But he wouldn't get anywhere if he kept just staring at it and let himself be weirded out by the situation. He needed to move. The other was already pretty aroused, therefore it probably wouldn't take that long anyway, so Koujaku began to hesitantly curl his toes around Noiz' cock.

Noiz' eyes were fixated on Koujaku's feet at first, but he wanted to savour the feeling more than the view, so he closed his eyes and began to slowly move his pelvis against Koujaku's motions, urging him on.  
"Try... to rub it... a little harder.", he said with a pressed voice. The sole fact that he had gotten Koujaku to go that far for him aroused him plenty already.

Koujaku swallowed, but tried to get over the weird feeling creeping him out by taking deep breaths and telling himself that it would be over soon. Plus, it was somewhat weird to have Noiz at his mercy in that kind of way. He could simply kick him in his balls if he wanted to right now, causing serious damage for the other, yet the brat had even closed his eyes by now and seemed to trust him with what he was doing completely. It gave Koujaku a somewhat peculiar feeling of having control over him now and those dry gasps and moans he coaxed out of the other as he varied the pressure he put on Noiz' dick were like an odd kind of reward.

Noiz' hip movements grew in eagerness soon and Koujaku used both of his feet now to give him pleasure, curling all of his toes around Noiz' arousal and rubbing at it at the same time with the balls of his feet.  
The young man's breath grew erratic and his face flushed with excitement as he felt the pressure on his skin and in his balls, wanting to come by all means now and clawing at the sheets.

"Hah...! Gh... Nh!"  
He wouldn't let out his voice, but he opened his eyes to look at Koujaku, who raised his view from his feet to meet Noiz' green gaze with a look on his face that spelled lingering excitement of how much of an reaction he could draw out of the other. Noiz grinned at him, but then felt his orgasm approaching and closed his eyes again, trusting once, twice more into Koujaku's hard grip on him until he finally spilled his semen all over the other's feet with a voiceless moan.

Koujaku endured the hot stream of come hitting his skin, the sight and the slick feeling of it bringing him back to reality as well. It was... pretty gross.

Noiz had a little trouble catching his breath. More than the actual friction, Koujaku's face and the fact that he was actually doing this for him had sent Noiz over the edge. He had to admit it to himself: He had definitely fallen for this guy, there was no other explanation for why he was acting the way he did otherwise.  
Noiz chuckled at himself upon that realization, but then caught sight of Koujaku's disgusted look towards his cum-soaked feet. Letting out a sigh, he put his limp member back in his pants, and fished for the handkerchief he always carried around with him due to an old habit of his.

"Don't worry, your feet won't melt from that, old man.", he said and started to wipe Koujaku's feet with the fabric. Koujaku flinched at the touch and Noiz looked up to him.  
"Hmm?"

"No... it's just, that...", Koujaku seemed embarrassed about his reaction, "It's... ticklish."

Noiz rose his brows.  
"I see."  
Then he went back to clean Koujaku's feet, trying not to tickle him that much, while the other in turn tried to stifle his laugh.  
It made Noiz smile for some reason.


	4. Chapter 4

That probably had been one of the craziest things Koujaku had done in his life so far - well at least if it concerned things he did during intercourse, more specifically intercourse with a man. Heck he had no experience with men when it came down to sex in the first place! And then this thing had happened with Noiz of all people to boot. Koujaku was at a loss of what to think right now. Okay, they hadn't gone all the way, it was more like foreplay, but nevertheless it had been a sexual act. He had allowed Noiz to give him head and had given him a footjob in return.  
This was nuts, completely stupid. How had it even come to this?  
And... where were they right now? Koujaku didn't recognize the room, now that he thought about it. Were they in some kind of hotel or something?

He looked over to Noiz, who sat there, staring at his used handkerchief, seemingly unsure what to do with it now. It wasn't like he could just throw it away like some cheap, used tissue, but the stuff inside of it now... His pants pockets were probably not a good place for this either.  
Koujaku blushed at the memory this awakened. He just wanted to get out of this situation right now.

"Oi!"  
Noiz turned his head as he heard him, stuffing the used handkerchief in his pockets after all, much to Koujaku's chagrin.  
"Gh... Err... Say, where exactly are we right now? The last thing I remember is drinking at Mizuki's bar."

Noiz blinked.  
So Koujaku didn't know about this room then?  
Interesting.  
There was no benefit in not telling him, though, so Noiz explained their whereabouts to Koujaku.  
"Technically we're still at your friend's bar, or rather slightly above it. It's a room that belongs to him and is halfway down the stairs to the Black Needle."

Koujaku thought for a moment and then a hint of recognition appeared on his face.  
"Aah... Yes, that room, I completely forgot about it. Must have been ages since my last stay here. Looks good I guess. I wonder if he still rents it to his customers."

So much for "only used by me and typically out of limits" then, Noiz thought. Well, it didn't matter anymore what Mizuki had told him. He had allowed both of them to stay here in the end, even if Noiz still didn't' know why exactly he had changed his mind then.  
Whatever.  
"Gotta go now.", he announced as he rose from where he sat, grabbed his hat and put it back on.  
There was a ton of information about Koujaku he had to verify now. The easiest way would have probably been to just ask him, but Koujaku wouldn't have answered him anyway, since they weren't friends after all. Which reminded him of something, making him stop on his way to the door.

"Say, that thing between you and Aoba... what kind of friends are you exactly?"

"Eh?", Koujaku, who was about to collect his belongings from the floor after having come to the conclusion that it was no use to stay in this place either, looked over his shoulder at Noiz with a quizzical look on his face.  
"What do you mean by that? I already told you: We are best friends for ages."

"Hmmm?"  
Noiz replayed the heated kiss in his mind that he had gotten from Koujaku after the other had mistaken him for Aoba in his sleep.  
"Would you really kiss a friend like that? Tongue and all?"  
He half-turned towards him, suggestively licked his lips and then grinned.

"W-What?!", Koujaku's face flushed and he obviously didn't know what to say to this to defend himself. Not remembering having kissed Noiz didn't help either.  
"What the hell are you talking about?!"

"You called his name in your sleep and I guess I can understand all of those girls swooning over you now. That kiss was really... good."  
He should have said fantastic as hell, but Noiz tried to hold back with compliments, since he didn't want to show any weakness or give Koujaku a reason to brag.

Koujaku still looked at him with a face as red as a tomato and moved his mouth wordlessly, apparently trying to defend himself of the fact that he had kissed Noiz and the reason why he had done it, being extremely uncomfortable about the fact that Noiz had found out about him being infatuated with Aoba. It wasn't like he could just say he had dreamed about some nameless girl if he had mentioned his name in his sleep before kissing Noiz.  
Wait... wasn't that brat... showing off a pretty satisfied grin over there?  
Was that a slight blush on his cheeks as he traced his lips with his index finger, making it look as casually as possible?  
Something dawned on Koujaku then.

"You... Don't tell me... Have you fallen for me by any chance?"

Noiz blinked.  
How could he tell? He hadn't even said anything in that direction!  
What did he catch him doing, so he knew?  
Shit, he could feel some warmth from the inside out coming from his face, he probably blushed seriously by now, so he turned away to face the door and put his hands in his pants pockets.

"Would you like that?"

"Eh?"  
Koujaku didn't get him and had awaited some kind of denial from Noiz' side instead.

Noiz rephrased his question.  
"Would you like me to... have fallen for you?"

How was that brat able to throw him off again and again? Koujaku just had no clue what to say to this now.  
Of course there was no way he would fancy a guy falling for him, much less Noiz. He might make an exception for Aoba, though, but his best friend was in a relationship already now and it didn't look like that would change anytime soon. What would he gain by Noiz having the hots for him anyway? That he could tease him on a whole new level then? No... No, the other seemed serious for once over there. This kind of worried Koujaku more than it caused him to want to mock Noiz for it. He felt like he just had to break the tense atmosphere right now.

"Haha, you being smitten with me, who would believe that?"

Noiz slightly flinched and his comeback sounded awfully strained.  
"Yeah, right? As if..."  
Noiz continued to head for the door, putting one hand on the doorhandle and was about to unlock the keyhole with the other, but then he paused and turned around, his face determined.  
"Believe me or not, but I'm gonna make you mine."

"Eh?!"

Keyhole unlocked, door opened, door closed and Koujaku was left completely baffled.  
"What... the hell...?"  
Was he for real? How could that be? Wasn't it more likely that the sky would come down tomorrow than for Noiz to be in love with him?  
Oh, this goddamn headache still hammered against his skull.  
Koujaku wanted to get out of this room and head home, maybe trying to get some more sleep so that he was able to think clearly again.

Putting on his clothes in kind of a hurry, he dropped the small pouch with his hairdressing accessories, which he always carried around with him, and the lid of its frontal part came off, spilling its contents all over the floor.  
"Shit...!"  
Koujaku bent down to collect the items strewn about, when his view fell upon a little, green-black cube trying to shove itself back into his bag by itself with as slight a movement as possible. Koujaku grabbed it and inspected it, though.  
"What do we have here?"

The cube didn't answer him at first, but it was totally obvious that it was one of Noiz' Allmates, judging by the rabbit design on top of it and the fact that he always carried around those things with him. But when had he put it into his pouch?  
Then it dawned on Koujaku.

"It can't be...!"  
He must have slipped him the darn thing when he had visited his shop and demanded to get his hair cut by Koujaku so insistently. So that had been the reason he had showed up after all? And that "thank you"-kiss had probably served as a distraction so he could smuggle the cube into his bag unnoticed.  
"That damn brat, spying on me so shamelessly."  
Assumedly, this had been the reason Noiz had come to Mizuki's bar tonight as well. He simply knew that Koujaku would be there and had decided to track him down for some reason.

"Pi?", the cube seemed to wonder what Koujaku was about to do with it. It could have tried to run, or rather hop away, but the door was closed, so there was no way out for it.

"What did Noiz say to you to tell him about me while you were hiding in my pocket?"

"Everything.", the cube-shaped Allmate answered without hesitation, "What Koujaku is doing, what he is talking about, where Koujaku is going - everything."

Koujaku didn't know if he should be flattered or scared by the amount of attention that he was getting from the other. It was somewhat creepy, but oddly reassuring somehow, seeing as it clearly showed that Noiz really had some serious interest in him. Well, that in itself was a bit problematic, though.

"Go back to your master, I have no interest in being the target of a stalker.", Koujaku grumbled, brought the cube to the door and threw it out of the room.

Then he proceeded to collect his things and get dressed. When he set foot on the staircase running between the exit and Mizuki's bar and looked around, the cube was nowhere to be seen. Koujaku reasoned that it must have followed his order and returned home then and headed down to Mizuki's bar to hand him the key. The cube, which only had hidden itself from view in the shadows, used the opportunity of Koujaku having his back turned to it to follow him and hopped on top of the bow of his obi, trying not to be shaken off as he walked. Noiz had been insistent on not loosing sight of his target ever after all. This mission was important to its master, so the rabbit cube tried its best to act according to his wishes.

Koujaku who didn't notice anything of this, walked through the door to the Black Needle and stopped at Mizuki's register, trying to spot the man owning this place among all the people who seemed to have flooded the bar by this time. He saw Mizuki giving instructions to one of his co-workers who seemed to be taking over for him at the bar. Maybe Mizuki had a customer for his tattoo parlour now or was otherwise occupied, so that he had to hand over the bar. Nevertheless, Koujaku called his name and waved at him to come over so he could hand him back the key to the room he had been in. Mizuki nodded at him and made a "I'll be there in a minute"-kind of hand-sight, so Koujaku relaxed his pose and waited for him by the register. As his eyes took in the familiar interior of the bar, he caught sight of the framed picture next to the cash register and froze on the spot.  
The style of the tattoo design on this sketch, it was something he instantly recognized as the trademark of the man who had violated his body and soul in the past. This was Ryuuhou's style, no doubt about it. But what was this doing here of all places? And why hadn't he noticed this thing earlier? Well, maybe that was because he either put his tab on the cuff or paid via coil, so there was no actual cash needed for his transactions. Whatever, he needed to find out more about that sketch now.

Mizuki headed over to the register by skillfully meandering through the crowd of people and smiled at Koujaku as he arrived by his side, trying to start a conversation when Koujaku cut him short with a tense growl instead.  
"Where did you get this?"

"Eh?", Mizuki didn't understand what he was talking about at first, but Koujaku held the framed picture in front of him and continued with an angry expression on his face.

"This sketch. Where did you get it? It's one of Ryuuhou's designs, isn't it?"

Mizuki blinked upon Koujaku's annoyance, but tried to keep being friendly nonetheless.  
"Y-yeah, you're right about that. I'm surprised that you know him. I got this when he happened to visit my bar once. But why are you-"

"When was that?!", Koujaku snarled, slamming his hands down on the counter and the red in his eyes seemed to have gained a more intense tint than usual.

Mizuki took a step back and rose his hands in a defensive gesture. A few members of his team looked at him in alarm, but Mizuki shook his head in their direction and gestured for them not to interfere. Then he looked back at his friend.  
"Hey, hey, don't shout at me. I'll answer you if you ask me normally, too, okay?"

Koujaku clenched his teeth but then closed his eyes for a moment and let out a frustrated sigh.  
"Sorry about that.", he rubbed at the region between his eyebrows as if to erase the deep furrow that had appeared on his forehead with his fingers, "It's just that I need to find this guy no matter what. He is part of the reason that my past was a gigantic mess."

Mizuki crossed his arms in front of his chest and still looked puzzled.  
"Sorry to tell you this then, but him visiting my shop happened over a year ago already, plus I have not the slightest clue where he went afterwards. I'm an admirer of his work, but his contact info is unknown to me. Care to tell me what happened? I have trouble believing that a guy rumoured to have God's skills when it comes to tattoos has given you a bad ink job."

Koujaku pressed his lips into a thin line and didn't look Mizuki into the eye. Then he shoved himself away from the counter, put the key on top of it and turned towards the exit.  
"Sorry, I don't think I can talk about that right now."

With that he exited the bar, leaving a worried looking Mizuki behind.

* * *

Noiz on the other hand walked down the streets of Midorijima with a pace close to running at the moment. His face was still red and he worried his lower lip while he headed straight home and pondered about the way he had left Koujaku just a few minutes ago.

What kind of a cheesy line had that been on his way out?  
"Believe me or not, but I'm gonna make you mine"? The hell?!  
He couldn't believe himself for saying something like this!  
Fuck! Fuck! Fuck it all!  
This was so embarrassing.

But he kind of had wanted Koujaku to know about his feelings. He wanted to be noticed by him, even more so since he had Aoba as a competitor and Koujaku seemed to have eyes only for him. Heck, Koujaku had even dreamed about Aoba, called his name in his sleep and would kiss this guy... like that.  
There it was again, that odd, piercing feeling in his chest when he thought about the fact that Koujaku's display of affection had been directed towards someone else, not towards Noiz, even if their lips had met in reality back then.

"Pi! Noiz' heart rate is pretty high, please be careful not to overstrain yourself.", a high-pitched, mechanical voice interrupted Noiz' line of thoughts as Usagimodoki voiced his concerns about him.

"Huh?", Noiz blinked in irritation and shot the chain of cubes around his waist an irritated look. All of his cubes were connected and housed more or less the same consciousness, but Usagimodoki usually was the main one, taking over its fellow Allmates bodies' as instructed by Noiz and often chose the topmost cube on the chain if there was no free cube roaming about to switch with.  
"Didn't I shut you off earlier?"

"I woke up due to Noiz' heart rate being anomalously high and you set me to notify you about bodily anomalies or serious injuries."

Noiz pinched the bridge of his nose as he tried to slow down his pace to shut his Allmate off again, even if that was not the main cause of his heart racing.

"There is still an unopened data file sent by tracker A.", the cube announced however and gained Noiz attention again.

"What kind of data was that?", he asked in an unnerved tone, remembering that tracker A was the one he had put on Koujaku.

"A recorded conversation between Koujaku and Mizuki before Noiz joined them."

"Ah, that.", he remembered being noted about that kind of thing before, but hadn't had the time to listen to it yet. He had just finished a job earlier - meaning providing information for his client - and then seen that Mizuki's bar and therefore Koujaku's whereabouts where on his way back home, so he had decided to drop by, half-awaiting to get something amusing out of seeing Koujaku in a drunk state. Plus, drunk people tended to be more talk-active, so he had hoped to get some info out of him, too. But Koujaku had already been about to fall asleep when he had entered Mizuki's bar, so he didn't know what they had talked about before he had arrived at the scene. But if his cube had recorded their conversation, then all the better.  
"Play it.", he demanded and a virtual set of headphones formed around his head, playing the conversation close to his ears.

"Heh? I see...", Noiz mumbled to himself absentmindedly as he listened in on the private conversation between the two men.

So he could have had that info bit about Koujaku having fallen for Aoba earlier, had he bothered to play this track then. But Koujaku had been bad in hiding whom he had fallen for anyway, so Noiz already knew that by now. The way more interesting fact for him was that Aoba currently was in a relationship with Clear already. Not that the weird, gas mask wearing guy would have been his choice, but whatever. The point was that Koujaku was aware of their relationship. Plus, it seemed that he had given up on Aoba as well, or at least he was at a loss of what to do about the situation.  
This was perfect.  
If Aoba was taken and Koujaku was heartbroken over it-No, wait, this was wrong. He shouldn't be happy about the fact that Koujaku suffered, that was an asshole-move. But it was the opportunity to seize his heart that appeared to be so appealing in front of Noiz now. Koujaku was unhappy, but he didn't seem to be the guy to march up to his concurrent, beat him to a pulp and demand Aoba to be his instead. Koujaku hadn't decided to take any steps against Aoba being with Clear, so... had he accepted it then?

Had he given up on Aoba?  
Had he?  
Was his heart free then?

The painful memory of Koujaku calling Aoba's name in his sleep rose up inside of Noiz' again. No, of course he hadn't given up on him yet, or at least he was still hung up on the situation being the way it was. Koujaku still yearned for Aoba and it made Noiz grit his teeth without him realizing doing it.  
Maybe he had to prove it to Koujaku then, that Clear and Aoba made a pretty good couple and that Koujaku should finally give up on Aoba?  
No, that was too much of a hassle, scratch that. Plus, how would he do that? Record every lovey-dovey conversation of the two, every time they had sex and then present it to Koujaku like some stupid, sappy porn video? As if...  
But there was one thing he had to admit: it was in his interest that Clear and Aoba stayed together so as to prevent Koujaku from getting his hopes up on being together with Aoba on a level beyond his friend-zone. Noiz made a mental note to dispatch a cube to them in some way to collect info on them later, even if he didn't know what to go for exactly yet. Maybe there would be something useful showing up if he just waited for a little while.

For now the most pressing matter for Noiz was still collecting data on Koujaku as a person. He had found out a lot about him by the inspecting his tattoos already, now it was important to follow those leads.

"I better order some pizza as soon as I get home, this will be a long night.", Noiz said to himself while he walked towards his apartment. He had to do some serious research now, the whole mystery that was Koujaku wouldn't let go of him otherwise.

* * *

A visit from the pizza delivery man later, Noiz sat in the middle of his accumulation of high tech computer components and was surrounded by various virtual monitors running through different kinds of database.

If you wanted to know something about a person it was useful to start at the basics, meaning where they were born and what their family tree looked like. The easiest way for Noiz to get his hands on that kind of information was to simply hijack the family registers of Midorijima, or rather all of Japan, because Koujaku's place of birth was unknown to him. He had to search going by Koujaku's first name, though, since he didn't know his last name either, but he was sure there would be a limited amount of "Koujakus" out there, since the name didn't appear to be that common to him. Plus, with an estimate on Koujaku's age he could rule out the ones that were too far off the scale, too.  
It didn't take long for Noiz to find what he was looking for, but it irritated him nevertheless. He had found two different entries for Koujaku. One was under his mother's last name. She didn't appear to be married to his father, but his name still appeared on the family register. Researching Koujaku's father then led him to an actual clan of yakuza residing on the mainland, like he had already pretty much expected it. Looking at their family tree, he recognized that Koujaku's father had been married with no legitimate children. If you had a clan it made sense to have an heir, though, so maybe that's where Koujaku might have come in then - illegitimate or not. So far so good. But the problem about all of that was that pretty much the whole clan had been wiped out. All the names were crossed out in the registry, starting by Koujaku's mother, his father, his father's wife, diverse relatives, even leading to people just associated with the clan who might have been servants at the house or something. All of them were dead, the only one still alive was Koujaku himself. And the even more surprising matter was that they all had died on the same day.

Noiz took a long sip out of his soft drink and finished the last slice of his now cold pizza.

What was the meaning of this? They all died at the same day? Was it an accident? No, what kind of an accident would hit people on such a large scale? It was a whole yakuza household, so over a dozen people were concerned here.  
Noiz chose another route of gaining information and searched for some kind of notification or news article concerning the date they all died.  
Then he found something on a local newspaper: An article stated that the clan had been massacred with Koujaku being the lone survivor of the ordeal. It was assumed that a hostile, neighbouring clan might have been the culprit, but the police investigation hadn't led to anything proving that. Another thing disturbed Noiz then. It was mentioned that Koujaku's mother had died in his arms and that Koujaku believed himself to be at fault for what had happened. The article made it clear that nobody believed him, though, blaming a kid's survivor's guilt after the bloodshed instead of the actual person. How would a single kid have managed to mow down dozens of people, most of them grown-up men and some of them trained in swordsmanship, after all? It seemed outright impossible.

Noiz' eyes widened as he remembered Koujaku's words from the time they had talked about what a monster was, though: "'A monster is something that acts on raw emotion and hurts others without caring while blindly screaming for more when it's already bathing in its victims' blood."

"Heilige Scheiße...!"*, Noiz slapped a hand in front of his mouth while he tried to picture the actual scene of Koujaku covered in the blood of his kin, which probably included the blood of his parents as well.  
This was just overwhelming, even for Noiz and he re-read the article twice, thrice more to make sure he wasn't connecting the dots the wrong way.  
Even if nobody had listened to Koujaku then, he had admitted his guilt concerning killing his entire clan. And he had told Noiz what a monster was in a way that strongly suggested that survivor's guilt wasn't the problem, but actual guilt from doing something awful.  
He sighed.  
"So that's why you call yourself a monster? Did the guys you slayed not deserve it after all? How much did they hurt you to make a moronic, caring guy like you hurt them in turn to that extent in the first place?"

More than the issue of Koujaku being a blood-stained murderer, Noiz was distraught by the fact that something like this could be possible for that man in the first place.  
Okay, his knowledge on the guy was still pretty limited, most of all if it concerned how he acted as a person, but still...  
That flashy womanizer-hairdresser?  
The first-class worrywart, who had to tend to the injuries of a guy he disliked just because he felt responsible for it?  
The man who drew his sword in a fight, but pretty much only used it sheathed as a club or the back of his blade even if you made him angry?  
That guy?  
Doing something like this?  
Impossible.

Noiz shook his head.  
No, of course it wasn't impossible, it had happened already - he had it there, in black and white. It was real.  
Nevertheless... it was hard to imagine.  
Koujaku being hot-headed? Yeah.  
Koujaku getting into a fight over some stupid argument? Clear.  
But Koujaku rampaging and going on a killing spree among his own family? Doubtful.  
He simply... wasn't the type. He lacked the potential of a blood-crazed killer in Noiz' eyes for some reason.

Plus... his age. He had still been a kid at the time his clan was annihilated. Less than the fact that he had succeeded in defeating his enemies who had probably overwhelmed him in strength, seize and maybe even in skill, Noiz wondered what the reason behind all of this had been.  
What had happened?

Noiz simply couldn't imagine what Koujaku must have gone through in his past to make him snap like that, but it must have been horrible.

Thinking about his own complicated circumstances with his family, Noiz felt his situation kind of pale against such an extreme outcome. His parents had locked him away from the world so he couldn't bring shame upon them by behaving the way he did whenever he had hurt himself. He had ignored his wounds in lack of being able to feel the pain that usually should have come with it, making him trying to stand even on broken limbs or running around bloodied all over the place, if he simply didn't recognize his own agony in time to adjust his behavior accordingly - acting like he would care what had happened to him so to speak. He had been lonely, so very lonely in this ridiculously huge house then, feeling like a prisoner inside his own family. But they still were there. They still lived. Noiz didn't have the urge to make them feel pain, too, or for them to perish from this world for the way they had treated him. He had been just sad that things had come this way. There had been nothing but a bottomless feeling of emptiness inside of him. When it had come down to make a decision, he had chosen to escape from his home instead of heading for more conflict with his parents and thus had come to Midorijima then.

As for Koujaku... Maybe he had acted upon rage? Noiz was unsure if he actually knew an emotion strong enough that earned the description "rage" came with so far himself. But maybe rage hadn't been the reason Koujaku had killed his family either. Maybe he had been sad, too, and simply couldn't take it anymore.

He sighed through his nose.  
Now he was down to guessing again.

Noiz absentmindedly flipped through other pages of newspaper articles surrounding the incident from back than, but couldn't find any valuable info aside from the one he already had. On the part of the police the case was labeled as 'unsolved' with the culprit unknown.  
The only half-way interesting thing Noiz was able to dig up was a black and white photo of Koujaku as a child with his mother standing behind him. She had been a beautiful woman, maybe a bit on the thin side and not looking very healthy, but both of them smiled happily in the picture.

Noiz blinked.  
Wasn't that...?

He squinted, zoomed in, but only got the picture more blurry, since the image resolution wouldn't work for him. Noiz huffed in annoyance and ran an anti-pixelizing software over it, then marked all the details that had caught his eye.  
Koujaku's mother stood behind Koujaku with her hands put lightly on top of Koujaku's shoulders. Her body wasn't entirely visible, but part of her kimono's pattern was looking out enough to see a sparrow sitting on a tree branch about the height of her thigh, and some flowery pattern on her sleeves and the hem of her kimono.

Noiz swallowed and exhaled tensely.  
"This... guy..."

The picture was taken in black and white, but this was definitely Koujaku's kimono, no doubt about that.  
So the reason it had been such an unmanly kind of kimono was that it was a woman's kimono after all and not any woman's, but that of his own mother. That same mother who had died in Koujaku's arms according to Noiz' info. Koujaku was wearing her clothes like it was a memento, but it probably held more meaning than that.

"So you didn't wrap yourself in your own name, but in your own guilt, huh?", Noiz muttered as he kept staring at the picture.

Koujaku wore this kimono on a daily basis, meaning he had to look at it every day when he put it on, too. He wore it even though it was a woman's attire and even after over 10 years had passed since that bloody incident. Koujaku might not have been thrown into prison for what he had done back then, but he was still a captive of his own sense of guilt. Whatever had triggered Koujaku's killing spree back then, he was still hung up on what he had done up to this day.

Noiz sighed for the nth time and made every virtual screen vanishing from sight by waving his hand, stashing the data he had collected into a folder at the same time. He felt emotionally exhausted from thinking too much.

Why did this whole info gathering business make him feel so low, though? Was it because he had fallen for Koujaku? Noiz knew he felt more than simple interest for Koujaku by now, since he had enjoyed making out with him way too much earlier. Heck, he had even announced to make him his on the spur of the moment! Remembering that scene let his brow twitch in annoyance over himself even now.  
He sighed - again.  
Was it really normal to be this emotionally worn out when you had fallen for someone?  
It was kind of a first for Noiz, so he didn't know.  
The only thing he had heard was that people got upset over not being able to get the attention of the person they had developed feelings for and suffered over it. But suffering because they knew that the other person had suffered? Wasn't that something that usually came only after you had achieved a certain level in a relationship? Well, technically Noiz didn't have a "relationship" with Koujaku at all, at least according to the definition of "lovers". They weren't lovers yet, they had met, bickered and made out, end of story so far.  
But if Noiz was already this upset before they even got started for real... was it even worth it to try going any further?

Koujaku's face popped up in his mind. He wore that smile on his face that had Noiz surprised upon seeing it the first time. Then Koujaku's naked body appeared in his thoughts, as well, and the face he had made when he had come in Noiz' mouth.  
Noiz swallowed hard.  
He still wanted him so badly.

So what if Koujaku had done something horribly wrong in his past? He had dealt with it by guilt-tripping himself for years now. His past didn't stop Noiz from wanting him, if anything it only served to fuel his desire even more. This man had been drenched in blood, drenched in pain - physically and psychically - and was still able to show kindness to others. He was fascinated by him and as long as this fascination would last he would try to get closer to him by whatever means necessary.

But for the time being he probably should go to sleep now. Looking at his coil to see if there was anything keeping him from sleeping in tomorrow, he saw an unread file sent to him by tracker A again. It was only labeled with numbers, so as not to evoke interest in its content for third parties who might have intercepted the message even though Noiz' security system was pretty much top-notch, so Noiz had no clue what its contents were either, aside from the fact that it was an audio file. He decided to listen to it before going to bed, though. It was a recorded conversation between Koujaku and Mizuki again, but this time it concerned Ryuuhou and the fact that Koujaku wanted to know about his whereabouts.

"It's just that I need to find this guy no matter what. He is part of the reason that my past was a gigantic mess.", he heard Koujaku state with a pretty desperate tone in his voice and pricked up his ears.  
Interesting. So Koujaku wanted to meet this tattooist again, because Ryuuhou had something to do with Koujaku's dreadful past?

Noiz knew Ryuuhou's whereabouts right now, even though he hadn't cared much about that then, but if this was some kind of data Koujaku was interested in, then maybe he could make a deal with him. Data for insight on the man - or for pleasure, Noiz wasn't sure which one he would prefer at the moment he would suggest an exchange. But it was good to know that he had something Koujaku wanted, even if it was just information.

* * *

_[*A/N: "Heilige Scheiße!" (Ger.) = "Holy shit!" (Eng.)]_


	5. Chapter 5

Noiz was running away in the dark and nearly out of breath.  
There was a malicious monster right behind him that only waited for him to stumble and fall to slice him up with his already bloodied sword blade.  
Yet, whenever he dared to look over his shoulder, he wanted nothing more than to stop running and keep staring at the other, at his muscular body with a black tribal tattoo clinging to his chest and sword arm. His kimono was halfway pulled down to free his upper body and partly shredded to pieces already with its beautiful flower pattern soaked in blood, making it appear dyed red almost completely.  
The longer Noiz ran, the harder it seemed to reach the door ahead of him, that promised to lead him out of this situation. The swordman was still behind him, his red eyes fixed on his prey while he drew closer in long, slow strides, but still caught up to Noiz without effort. He lifted his sword and swung it down repeatedly behind Noiz and even though there was still a significant distance between the two of them, slash wounds appeared all over Noiz' body and it hurt, but the pain he felt wasn't coming from his wounds but from deep inside of him. It was like his heart was stabbing at him even though the wounds inflicted upon his body probably shouldn't match with this kind of a painful sensation.  
Noiz still kept on running, even though he could feel his body giving in to the strain bit by bit and him slowing down. The closer he came to the door now, the shorter his steps grew and his viewpoint seemed to get lower and lower for some reason, like his body was shrinking. When his hands finally reached the doorhandle, they were the hands of a frightened child, but Noiz tried to open the door nevertheless - it was locked tightly. It wouldn't open, no matter how hard he pulled at the door or its handle and the monster behind him had drawn close enough to grab him by the neck now.  
The child that was Noiz half-turned around and looked up to the person behind him in horror. The man with the blade had a very sad look in his red eyes and he smiled at him sorrowfully as he rose the sword over Noiz' head.  
He whispered in a rueful tone "I'm sorry about this." before his blade came down on him.

Noiz woke up with a start.

His heart hammered against his chest and he breathed in short, shallow intervals while cold sweat dripped down his temples.  
A dream, it had been just a dream.  
Noiz tried to reassure himself by looking around the room - it was the same interior as usual, nothing had changed since he had gone to bed the other day. There was no sign of anybody else having been in here either.  
Still shaken and his body unwilling to rise even though his heart thumped like crazy, Noiz got out of his bed and headed straight for the frontdoor.  
He pressed the door handle down and the door opened without any resistance - it wasn't locked, not now, not ever. None of Noiz' doors were ever locked as long as he was inside of his apartment.  
He absentmindedly opened and closed the door a few times to make sure, then headed for the bathroom to splash some cold water in his face.

People might tell him that not locking your frontdoor when you were asleep, or even when awake, was a very dangerous thing to do, but Noiz couldn't fall asleep otherwise. Plus, it usually served to keep dreams like the one he just had at bay - a dream where he was locked up in a room with no way out. But this time not only his fear of getting locked away again had tormented him, he had dreamed about Koujaku killing him, too.  
Noiz dried his face with a small towel and stared at the white, ceramic bottom of his sink.  
He had to admit to himself that he was obviously way more upset about Koujaku's past than he had thought he might have been.  
But was he really afraid of the man in the sense of fear?  
Was he?  
The Koujaku in his dream had looked so sad as he had lifted his sword to deliver the finishing blow, that it made Noiz' heart ache even now that he just thought about it.

Noiz knew that Koujaku carried his regret over his past with himself to this day, it was plainly obvious after all he had found out about him yesterday. And he simply didn't seem like the type to do something like that ever again. But Noiz didn't know the reason Koujaku had snapped in the past, so maybe there was some kind of trigger that would throw him into a state where he would start cutting down people again, even the ones he cared for, as shown by his mother being among the victims then, too. But Noiz wanted to get closer to him regardless, ergo making himself a possible target for Koujaku's next killing spree, if there ever happened to be a next time that was and if he even achieved that goal of being classified as "somebody close to Koujaku" one day.

Noiz sighed.  
There was a saying along the lines that sighing too much would make your soul fade away. If that was the case, Noiz' current status was probably "zombie" by now.

He went back to his living room and reached for his coil to see what time it was - a little past lunch time. Fine, he had only one appointment today anyway and that wasn't until a few hours to come, so he could take it easy and eat breakfast or brunch or whatever now.

* * *

Meanwhile, Koujaku stood in front of Aoba's home and hesitated to go inside.  
Aoba had invited him over for lunch today and Koujaku had longed for Tae's cooking for quite a while now. Plus, he really wanted to see how Aoba was doing, but there was still that awkward feeling in his guts. He wanted to see Aoba, but he didn't want to see him with Clear. But it was very unlikely that he would get one without the other, since Aoba probably intended to... How had he worded it that night Koujaku had overheard them on Aoba's balcony again? To introduce Clear to Koujaku as Aoba's lover? Something like that.  
Koujaku took a deep breath and tried to man up. There simply was no way around this, if he wanted to keep being friends with Aoba. He had tried his hardest to force himself to accept the choice Aoba had made, even if it hurt him. It was his own damn fault for not taking action sooner anyway, so the only person he should be angry with should be himself.  
It was easier to project his hate towards Clear, though.

Koujaku scratched the back of his head.  
All jealousy was useless, he knew that, but knowing something and actually feeling it were two different things.  
Maybe he should try to see it positively?  
Maybe his visit would serve as a means to get over Aoba and his missed chances?  
Maybe he would get the feeling that Clear was the right person to be by Aoba's side?  
There was a limit to how selfless Koujaku could try to act when he didn't genuinely felt like it, though.

A very heavy sigh later, Koujaku rang the doorbell to the Seragaki's house.

There was the faint sound of somebody hurrying down the stairs and Aoba opened the door for him almost instantly, greeting him with a broad smile on his lips.  
"Koujaku! Good to see you. Come in! Granny's almost done preparing lunch!"

That said, Aoba took a step aside to let Koujaku pass to the threshold to get out of his shoes and then led the way to the kitchen. Tae looked up from the pot cooking on the stove as she spotted Koujaku in the doorframe.  
"Welcome home, never-full.", she smiled at him like in the old days when Koujaku would visit the Seragaki's as a kid to invite himself over for a good meal. Well, technically he had done the same thing even after he had grown up, at least until about a year ago. But it was a pretty long time since he had the chance to taste Tae's excellent cooking and he was overjoyed to see one of her specialties - meat and potato stew - which happened to be Aoba's favorite as well, cooking on the stove. There was another person in the kitchen, it was the white-haired oddball - sans mask - who had managed to win Aoba's heart: Clear.

He seemed to work on some kind of dessert and fidgeted a bit when their eyes met, but he gave Koujaku a joyful smile nevertheless as he greeted him.  
"Koujaku-san! It's nice to have you over for dinner! Please take a seat, food will be ready in a minute."

"Thanks for having me."  
Koujaku smiled back, but broke eye contact as he took a seat at the table.  
His eyes were on Aoba all the time. His friend just asked Tae if he could finally help with anything after having been banned from the kitchen beforehand and she told him to se the table if he was so keen on doing something useful. Aoba agreed and got to the cupboard with the dishes, having to get past Clear to do so and shared a tender smile with him.

Oh, great, Koujaku already wanted to get out of here.  
No, no, no!  
He told himself to be happy for Aoba and to keep the jealousy down.  
Ah, but he wished Aoba's smile was for him instead.  
Koujaku shook his head at his thoughts and Aoba noticed him acting disgruntled, so he voiced his concerns.

"Is everything alright, Koujaku?"

"Eh?", Koujaku was surprised by the question, but then showed a slightly crooked smile, "It's nothing. I just thought how long it has been since I was able to have something to eat at your house."

"Yeah, it really has been a long time, hasn't it?", Aoba smiled at him apologetically and Tae showed up behind him with a pot of stew that was ready to be served now.

"Well it was kind of relaxing not to have somebody around, who would eat you out of house and home all the time.", Tae joked dryly and Koujaku huffed a soft laugh.

Then all of them took a seat and Clear began to distribute the food, trying to share as equally as possible.

The meal passed with just small talk about Aoba's and Koujaku's work and some of Clear's antics that had happened since he had begun staying at Aoba's home, like trying to be helpful doing chores but making things worse pretty often instead, which embarrassed Clear to a point of turning beet-red and covering his face with his hands, probably wishing to be able to sink into the floor right there.

After lunch was over, Koujaku thoroughly complimented Tae's cooking and gave some compliments to Clear's dessert as well, which seemed to relieve him greatly. Then Koujaku offered to help with doing the dishes, but was shooed away by Tae together with Aoba and Clear. She told them to have a proper talk now that Koujaku had finally come over and visited Aoba again, therefore all three of them ended up heading upstairs and taking a seat around the small table in Aoba's room. Ren had sat on his favorite cushion as all of them entered Aoba's room and Aoba had booted him up from sleep-mode so he could meet with Beni whom Koujaku had brought due to the sparrow's insistence on wanting to see his Allmate friend, too.

The atmosphere was a little thick as nobody seemed to find the right way to start the discussion afterwards. Koujaku considered taking a smoke on Aoba's balcony already, when Aoba finally spoke up.

"So, you know... I... I already told you that I love Clear, Koujaku.", the embarrassment-level for that statement alone must have been pretty high, since Aoba turned red at the same time his confession left his mouth, which made Koujaku smile for some reason. Then he continued.  
"But you said you didn't know anything about him, so, uh... Err...", he looked over to Clear, who seemed even more flustered than Aoba.

He looked like somebody who just had asked a father for his daughter's hand in marriage, sitting there with his hands balled to fists on top of his knees.  
"I... I... I am Clear, nice to meet you, Koujaku-san. No, wait, we already know each other, it was the other thing...", Clear couldn't look Koujaku straight in the eye, his nervousness easing the situation for the older man, who let out a light huff.

"Easy there, Clear. I am not going to eat you, you know? I already had my fill.", he grinned and Clear scratched the back of his neck in bashfulness before attempting a straight sitting position again and to start over.

"Uhm, concerning my past, before I met Aoba-san, I lived with my grandfather by a waste recovery. We didn't have much but it was a peaceful life. He passed away a while ago, though."  
Clear took a moment to appreciate some fond memory connecting him to his grandfather it seemed, before he continued.  
"The first time I met Aoba-san was after he was caught in a drive-by over a year ago and shortly after that I met Koujaku-san, Noiz-san and Mink-san as well and then we went on a mission to rescue Tae-san together. After that Aoba-san took me with him when he went to Platinum Jail."  
Clear didn't seem to know what exactly to address at this point in his story, so Aoba took over.

"A lot of things happened, but we managed to get to Toue.", Aoba had a grim face while talking about the man who had tried his utmost to gain control over the whole island by brainwashing its inhabitants then. "Anyways, he wanted to capture me because auf my Scrap ability, but Clear saved me and we escaped Oval Tower together."  
He looked at Clear and his face took a turn for the worse, immense sadness seeming to well up inside of him as he lightly brushed over Clear's cheek with one hand and his voice cracked a bit as he began to stutter.  
"Sadly..., Clear got hurt... very badly during the fight with Toue's... henchmen, so badly in fact that after we made it out of Oval Tower he... He..."  
Aoba couldn't find the right words it seemed, his eyes darting around the room lost in thought and even appearing to tear up, while he worried his lower lip.

Clear put a hand on Aoba's back and gave him a tender smile before looking at Koujaku again.  
"I almost didn't make it. Aoba-san managed to bring me back here, though, and Tae-san and an acquaintance of hers looked after me until I was better again. It took a whole year, but they did their best to get me back in top shape and I'm very grateful for their efforts."

Aoba wiped at his eyes, before he gave Clear a smile.  
"Yeah, me too."  
They seemed to share a moment there and Koujaku tried to imagine what exactly might have happened that had left Clear in such an awful state to have to undergo a recovery of such duration. They hadn't really filled in that much blanks with their attempt at an explanation, but it seemed to be a matter triggering a lot of unwanted memories for the both of them, so Koujaku tried to hold back on his inquisitiveness.  
Inspecting Clear for scars, his view fell on some discoloration on his face. It was nearly invisible, but with a certain light he could see it. Looking at Clear's body now, the part of his arms that wasn't covered by his shirt or gloves showed he same kind of odd colour here and there.

Was it so bad that he had to have some skin transplantation?  
Koujaku wanted to ask, but found the question pretty intrusive and therefore refrained from it.  
Nobody wanted to be reminded of his scars after all - might they be of a physical or psychical nature - Koujaku knew that very well himself.  
But Clear had saved Aoba due to risking his own life, that much Koujaku was sure of now.

Koujaku let out a low sigh through his nose before smiling at the both of them.  
"And now you're a lovey-dovey idiot-couple living happily ever after, I take it?", he grinned at them and awaited Aoba to scream some denial at him and for Clear to turn bright-red and literally sink into the floor or something like that.  
But all he got were the two of them blushing, staring at each other as if to honestly consider Koujaku's question and then shyly looking away from each other while their hands overlapped a bit on the floor as if to trying to hold hands to ease their nerves but not daring to in front of Koujaku.

It.  
Was.  
Sickening.

No way that there ever was going to be hope to get these two apart from each other again, not that Koujaku had entertained thoughts like that - okay he had, but it seemed so pathetic in retrospect, he couldn't believe himself. He needed a smoke, now, badly, so he got up from his cushion and headed for Aoba's balcony.

Aoba noticed Koujaku's intention and followed him with the ashtray he still kept just for his best friend visiting him.  
Putting the ashtray on the handrail of his balcony and leaning his back against it, Aoba witnessed Clear talking with Ren and Beni and had to grin at the three of them while he waited for Koujaku to collect his thoughts, since he was kind of sure his friend still wanted to talk to him some more.

Koujaku lit his cigarette and blew some smoke in the air before speaking again.  
"You know, I still don't have much of an idea of what kind of a guy Clear is inside. I mean he shows that bubbly personality all the time, but he seems to be serious about you at least, serious enough to put his life on the line to save you from trouble."

"Yeah.", Aoba said with a somewhat nostalgic tone in his voice and watched Clear from the corner of his eyes as he struggled with Beni and Ren who seemed to ridicule Clear a little, judging by how flustered the other had gotten, "He's a good guy, I already told you not to worry about this, Koujaku."

Koujaku laughed at himself, but then turned his head with a complicated expression on his face and asked: "And are you-"

"Happy?", Aoba interrupted his question with a smile. "Of course I am, I already told you that, too. Don't you believe me?"

Koujaku let out an embarrassed sigh and scratched his head before sighing deeply.  
"I'm sorry, I know I've asked you all of that before. I just want to make absolutely sure."

"Do I look unhappy to you?", Aoba wanted to know, still smiling and Koujaku shook his head.

"No, you look fine to me."

"Then what is it?"

Koujaku blinked.  
Yeah, what was it, indeed?  
Was this a good time to tell him about his feelings? Maybe in a way of "I fell for you but now that I see that you're taken I have to make sure he's at least as good as me or rather better?"  
Nonsense, this was absolutely stupid, even as a thought!

Aoba came up with his own interpretation of Koujaku's behaviour, though.  
"Are you afraid that we can't be friends anymore now that I have a lover? It's not true, you know. You will always hold a special place in my heart and if you're fine with me dating a guy I don't see why you couldn't come over to visit like you used to do it before."

Koujaku's mouth worked without him saying anything, just letting out some air.  
Excellent build-up by Aoba, now Koujaku only needed to make something out of it, be it true or not.  
He forced his corners of the mouth into a smile and nodded once.  
"Y-Yeah, that's... It's stupid, right? As if that would change anything between us."

"Exactly", Aoba agreed and gave his friend a pat on the shoulder before he returned to his room

Koujaku blew rings of smoke into the air.  
Just keep it in, that was the best way to do things, Koujaku was sure of it.

* * *

He left the Seragakis' home after he had finished his cigarette. He could have stayed a little longer to chat about some things, but he decided against it. Koujaku had a feeling like he was intruding into Clear's and Aoba's relationship, maybe it was because it was still too new to him, even if he told himself to accept the facts already. He still felt a little heartbroken about Aoba being taken, though. But Clear surely was a good guy, even if his personality was a little off sometimes with him being overly fidgety or saying some weird things now and then that should be obvious to every normal human being . But he had protected Aoba from harm with his own life on the line and Aoba really looked so happy being with him that Koujaku had no argument against their relationship.

Heading home, he let his eyes wander over the crowd of people on the streets of the Old Resident District.  
Maybe he could open up shop today after all? It was a little late, but with that many people around there sure would be some customers coming, too, and Koujaku felt like a bit of distraction from thinking about Aoba would do him some good.

Then he stopped short suddenly.

Was that Noiz he had just seen vanishing around the corner into some shady looking back street?  
He was kind of sure to have seen an inkling of neon green and black right over there.  
He didn't even know why he wanted to make sure it was Noiz in the first place, but Koujaku followed that person and after a few steps he could spot Noiz with some other guy in a dark corner of the narrow street. Koujaku pressed his back against a wall and tried to stay hidden in the shadows while he spied on what Noiz was doing. They seemed to exchange something, then a faint beeping sound of coils from some kind of data transfer could be heard - probably money judging by the acknowledgement sound - and the guy unbeknownst to Koujaku left the scene kinda hurriedly. Noiz rummaged in his pockets with a somewhat thoughtful look on his face afterwards, and Koujaku had a very bad feeling about this situation now.

He couldn't have...?

Koujaku stepped out of the shadows into Noiz' field of vision and gave him a somewhat distrustful smile.  
"Yo, doing some business in the dark?"  
His voice sounded pretty strained to his own ears and Koujaku wasn't sure why that was.

Noiz looked up to him as he caught sight of Koujaku and simultaneously pulled out some candy from his pants pockets, unwrapped it with a smooth motion and put it into his mouth.  
"Hello old man. Not doing anybody's hair today?"

The young man seemed genuinely unconcerned about Koujaku having caught him in the act of his doings and he hadn't pulled something more suspicious than candy out of his pockets. Koujaku was still warily though and put on a serious face.  
"What did you exchange there?"

Noiz shrugged and looked away.  
"Don't know how this is any of your business."

He tried to get past Koujaku, but the other grabbed him by his arm and twisted his body around so that Noiz' back faced the wall now. Leaning one arm against the wall to trap Noiz, Koujaku brought his face close to him to appear somewhat threatening.  
"Now look, I've seen enough half-dead corpses on the streets around here, I simply don't like the idea of adding you to the picture as well, understood?"

The young man blinked, then tried to work out what Koujaku was getting at before it hit him and a smug grin spread over his face.  
"Relax, I wasn't dealing drugs or anything."  
Koujaku's eyes lit up, so Noiz was probably spot on on what the other had thought he might have dealt with. He let out a soft laugh through his nose, then continued to explain further.  
"I wouldn't get anything out of having my brains turn into mush by some stupid drug anyway, since working my mind is kind of my source of income, you know? I'm an information broker in case you've forgotten, that means I'm selling information to people who pay for it like that guy earlier."

Koujaku moved away a bit to give Noiz some space. The way he explained things made sense for sure, yet there still was a hint of doubt about how Noiz did his business.  
"But why would you meet your client in some dark corner on the streets? Couldn't you just have sent the info to him via coil?"

Noiz rolled his eyes and sighed.  
"Isn't that obvious? The stuff he wanted to know wasn't the kind of info that you'd want to appear on some kind of network, so I couldn't send it to him via coil. Of course I could have set up some security system to prevent the data from getting intercepted by some unwanted party, but he insisted that I hand him a hard copy instead, therefore he got a memory card from me. That's all."

Koujaku finally gave in and let out some air through his nose while taking a stand with his arms folded in front of his chest being partly covered by his kimono's sleeves and his view directed away from Noiz.

Noiz found the way he had tried to interrogate him kind of amusing and couldn't hide a big grin. He put his hands in his pants pockets and bent down a little, looking at Koujaku's face from below.  
"Were you worried about me, old man?"

Koujaku's eyes darted towards him for a moment but then he looked away again - he probably was a little embarrassed over his own behaviour.

Noiz snorted and then thought it might be a good idea to propose some info exchange he was sure Koujaku was interested in.  
"Hey, how about I get you some information as well? I'll make you a special offer."

Koujaku rose his eyebrows, then tried to brush it off.  
"No, thank you, I'm not interested in info about Rhyme or for you to dig up some dirt about somebody."

"Are you sure about that?", Noiz circled him and looked like he had an ace up his sleeve. "Maybe I could find a person you are looking for or something like that?"

Koujaku's ears perked up and he was alarmed immediately but tried to play it down, albeit with a warning tone in his voice.  
"What do you mean by that?"

"Well, I know you're looking for some guy named Ryuuhou for example."  
Noiz had a smile on his face, but Koujaku looked as grim as a fierce deity the second he had uttered the other man's name.

"How do you know that I'm looking for him?"  
Koujaku appeared to have trouble keeping down a sudden urge of anger, but Noiz wasn't impressed by the display, quite the contrary.

"Let's just say that I heard it somewhere?"

Koujaku sized him up, then it dawned on him and he turned halfway around to open up the bag around his waist to find a green-black cube with a stylized rabbit face on top of it sitting between his tools. He glared at the item while taking it out.  
"You little...! Didn't I get rid of you already?"

"P?", the cube chimed with an innocent tone before it was roughly thrown in Noiz' direction with the latter catching it and making a motion like attaching it back onto his chain of Allmates, all while giving Koujaku a blank look.

Koujaku was still enraged and was about to start a tirade, when Noiz rose his index finger and spoke up again.  
"Forget about how I know it, it's only important that I know it, isn't it? And the point is that I can help you find that guy if you want to meet him."

"Kh...!"  
Koujaku grit his teeth, but tried to swallow down his anger, crossing his arms in front of his chest instead and put a look on his face like he didn't think Noiz was capable of that.  
"Tche, I'd like to see you try. Spying on him with some of your little cubes won't work on him, I'm sure about that."

Unnoticed by Koujaku, the cube he had gotten rid of hadn't ended up on Noiz' chain at all, but had been let go of and made its way around the other man to try finding the perfect moment to slip back into his bag again.

Noiz tried not to rise suspicion about his Allmate and kept eye contact with Koujaku, sounding as sure about himself as ever.  
"Just try me if you don't trust me in being able to get you the data you want. Let's say we exchange knowledge about each other. You tell me what you know about me and I tell you want I've found out about you so far."

"You researched me?", Koujaku's growled in annoyance, but Noiz only smirked back at him.

"Of course I did, I wanted to know more about you after all and asking you wasn't really an option."  
That didn't keep him from asking other people, though. There were some things about Koujaku easily found out by just talking to his fans on the streets, even if Noiz wasn't that much into talking to people in the first place. But if the motivation was high enough, it might turn out to be worth the trouble, even if you had to stand around a bunch of hyped up fangirls in a crowd for example. For the rest of what he had wanted to know about the man his hacking skills had come in handy.

Koujaku sighed heavily, brushed down the nape of his neck while thinking if he really should get involved in Noiz' little game of data exchange. He doubted he could get his hands on a man he was looking for for years now, but it might be good to know what that brat thought to know about himself, if just to be sure that he hadn't dug too deep. So he answered Noiz with another sigh.  
"Okay, let's have it your way: Your name is Noiz, you're a computer nerd and your Rhyme team is called 'Ruff Rabbit'. You seem to be in your early twenties and are a pretty unsociable brat. Plus, judging by your natural hair and eye colour, you're probably not Japanese or at least not entirely."

Noiz waited for a moment in case Koujaku wanted to add something, but he seemed to have finished already.  
"That's all you know about me? That's... sad."

Koujaku snorted. The other hadn't denied a thing, though, so he must have been right with his facts.  
"If you say so. What do you know about me, then, oh great information gatherer Noiz-sama?"

Noiz smiled at the mocking tone in Koujaku's voice and his newly achieved nickname, took a deep breath and used one of his Usagimodoki-Allmates to activate a virtual computer screen out of nowhere with some data he had collected about Koujaku. He sounded very monotone as he read it out loud.  
"Name: Koujaku; occupation: freelance hairstylist; right handed; height: 186 cm; age: about 8 years my senior; birthday: August 19; blood type: A; Allmate: Beni; favorite colour seems to be red; likes sparrows. Rib team is Benishigure. Team has a small member count with members known for wearing Japanese clothing, but high team popularity status due to helping the elderly and community in general. Their leader has a tattoo covering his entire body starting from the right side of his face and ending at his right ankle. Tattoo motif is a mix of tribals and peonies, that and the way it's made is a common feature of yakuza members. Tattooist was Ryuuhou, known for his distinct style of tattoos, overcharging his customers and the use of a traditional tattoo method called 'Tebori'."

Koujaku had gone more and more pale the longer Noiz had talked, then gasped and was about to start a sentence with a "How-" but was interrupted by Noiz rattling on like he hadn't noticed him saying anything.

"Is the illegitimate child of the head of a yakuza clan on the mainland and was supposed to be assigned to become the legitimate heir before he became the only survivor when his clan was massacred years ago. Case is labeled as 'unsolved' up to this date with the culprit unknown but it's rumoured to have been the doing of a rivaling yakuza clan."  
Noiz heard Koujaku let out a strained sigh through his nose and felt his red eyes taxing him while he was tense all over with cold sweat running down his temples. Noiz didn't flinch, though, as he added some other data to this list: "Best friend: Aoba Seragaki; relationship status: single."

Koujaku gave him an irritated look at the last bit of his heap of information about him. It simply wouldn't fit in with the rest, but then he dimly remembered Noiz' words of wanting him to be his, so maybe that brat just had tried to show off in front of him to make himself look more appealing to Koujaku. In another situation, Koujaku might have quit that with a smile, but the facts about his past Noiz had presented with him weighed too heavily on his mind for that.  
How could Noiz have found out all about this? He practically knew everything about him, except for the true culprit behind that incident years ago. That was somewhat of a relief to Koujaku, yet he felt like Noiz had just cut him open with a knife and was eagerly awaiting for him to bleed from the wound inflicted upon him. He simply didn't know how to react to this.

Noiz seemed to wait for some kind of answer, but in lieu of getting anything out of Koujaku, he let out a frustrated sigh and gave him an annoyed look.  
"Still not convinced that I can get my hands on pretty much any kind of information, old man?"

"Eh?", Koujaku broke from his train of thoughts of searching for the right words to react to Noiz, but the young man circled him with an appraising view and Koujaku swallowed hard. "No, I think you can do it just fine if you could gather all of those things about my past." He pressed his teeth together almost hurtfully. Something like this surely wasn't anything he wanted Noiz to know about. And should he just bypass the question of how exactly Noiz got his hands on that info in the first place and what he intended to do with it now that he knew?

Noiz seemed to be tired of waiting for an answer, stretched his arms and folded his hands together behind his back of the head in a lazy manner.  
"So, you get that I can find that Ryuuhou-guy for you just fine then, too? Great. If you want that info it will cost you something, though. Want to make a deal with me?"

"A... deal?", Koujaku asked warily and Noiz confirmed with a nod.

"A deal. I'll get you the info on that Ryuuhou-guy you're seeking and I even might bring you right to his frontdoor if you want me to. In exchange for all of that..."  
He drew closer and glanced at Koujaku with his eyes, then his view wandered down Koujaku's body, accompanied by his hand lightly gliding over the ponytail hanging over Koujaku's shoulder and down to the part of Koujaku's pectoral muscles not hidden by his clothes. Then he looked up to him.  
"I want you to do it with me for real this time."

"Kh...!"  
Koujaku instantly slapped Noiz' hand away and took a step back.  
"Are you crazy?! Why would I even consider something like this?"

Noiz looked a bit irritated with his curious hand still held in midair before he let it sink down to dangle next to his leg. He made a face like he didn't understand the problem.  
"Why not? Am I that ugly looking to you? And you had fun last time, too, right? It's a good deal. Besides, you could never pay the sum it would take to cover the bill otherwise anyway."  
Koujaku flinched at that last bit of his explanation. His choice of words might have been wrong then, even if it had been the truth. Noiz' skills were top-notch but so were the prices for his services after all - even if he didn't care for money in the slightest in Koujaku's case.

Koujaku growled at him with blatant disgust on his face.  
"So in short you want me to sell my body to you to get that information about Ryuuhou?"  
Koujaku spit on the floor before Noiz could utter a word of protest to that.  
"Forget it! I'd rather search for him for the rest of my life than consenting to that kind of payment!"

With that he turned on his heels and was about to make his way out of the narrow backstreet to head for the main street of the Old Resident District.

"Wait!", Noiz called after him, before he had time to even think about how to change Koujaku's mind, and grabbed him by his wrist in an attempt to stop him.

Koujaku glared at him and was about to free himself from Noiz' grip with a tug of his arm, but then paused in his motion when he saw the desperate look in Noiz' eyes. The younger man's mouth worked as if he was trying to find the right things to say to turn around the situation, but when he finally spoke his words sounded awfully unsorted like he wasn't sure how to get his message across.

"It's not like I'd compensate any money by wanting your body instead! I wouldn't have accepted any money from you in the first place! It's just that...! That..."  
Noiz couldn't look Koujaku straight in the eye. He was too much taken aback by the sheer fact that Koujaku hadn't simply surrendered his body to him like it wasn't a big deal at all. It shouldn't have been a hard decision to make for him, Noiz was sure of that. Why was sharing some bodily affection a problem for a guy rumoured to sleep around like no one else anyway? Noiz simply didn't' get it and finally looked at Koujaku with a lost look on his face.  
"I...", he took a deep breath through his nose and his cheeks gained some colour when he added: "I just want you so much."

Koujaku furrowed brows and freed himself from Noiz' now rather slack grip on him with a smooth motion of his arm, before staring at him.  
"Why? Why are you so obsessed with me anyway?"

They exchanged glances for a while before Noiz simply uttered: "You said I wasn't a monster when I told you that I couldn't feel pain."

Koujaku blinked in sheer disbelief.  
So that's what it was? Just that and he had fired up Noiz' interest in him to a level where he would research him to such an extent and spy on his every activity?  
Koujaku simply couldn't believe it.  
"That's... all of it?"

Noiz hitched a breath and his short brows furrowed.  
"What do you mean... 'that's all of it'? That's the most important thing in my-!"  
Noiz stopped himself there and looked away.  
Yeah, right, how would Koujaku know what he had been through in his past? He hadn't told him anything about himself yet after all. Koujaku knew nothing about him, not even his real name. He even had confirmed his limited knowledge about him earlier in their little data exchanging duel.  
So he just added "It's very important to me." without being able to make eye contact. Instead he let his hand slide over the collar of Koujaku's kimono.

"Being called a 'monster'... You know how it feels, right? You probably always felt like one, judging by the kimono that you're wearing."

"Eh?"  
Koujaku turned pale at Noiz' comment and stared at him wide-eyed.

Noiz didn't pay his reaction any attention but just let his eyes wander down Koujaku's clothes.  
"This kimono, it looked like a flashy piece of clothing to me at first glance. It's red and has sparrows on it, so I thought it was just spelling your name like some weird kind of advertisement since you're a street hairdresser and all. But it's still weird that it has that colourful, floral pattern on it, too. Japanese men usually don't wear kimonos with patterns like that, it's too... girly."  
He casually lifted Koujaku's left sleeve by its hem.  
"And those cut-up sleeves, they are weird as well, not to mention the way you're binding that obi looking like a girl's bow. So after some research I know it's a woman's kimono you're wearing."

Koujaku swallowed nervously and looked like an animal being cornered.

Noiz continued with his musings without taking note of this either.  
"And it's not any woman's kimono but that of your mother."

Koujaku gasped and brushed Noiz' hand away.  
"Stop it!"

Noiz looked at him with a questioning look on his face.  
"Stop what? You're wearing one of your mother's kimonos, right? It simply shows that you regret what happened in your past when you..."  
Noiz didn't want to go into that much detail here, since he thought the memories must be too dreadful to remind Koujaku of them. But it was important for him to drive his point home to mention that incident, so he had decided to act on that impulse and went on.  
"When that monster you had become hurt all those people around you and was 'screaming for more when already bathing in its victims' blood' according to what you said to me back then. But still I-"

Koujaku slapped Noiz' so hard on his cheek all of of a sudden, that he stumbled on his feet and nearly fell over, but was grabbed by his collar instead and hoisted up against the wall behind him the next moment. The impact knocked the air out of Noiz' lungs and he looked at Koujaku in bewilderment. Blood from a cut wound on the inside of his cheek began to trickle out of his mouth and the skin on his face began to redden and swell. In his attempt to make eye contact, Noiz was pierced by glowing, red eyes staring at him. Then the other man let out a guttural growl.

"Not. Another. Word. You hear me?! Or I don't know what I'll be doing!"  
He tightened his grip around Noiz' collar to a point of half-strangling him and Noiz began to struggle against his hold while gasping for breath.  
"Understood?!", Koujaku snarled and Noiz tried to nod in lack of enough oxygen to speak until Koujaku finally let go of him again and he slumped down the wall, coughing and trying to get some air back into his system.

Koujaku watched Noiz and put a hand over his own left shoulder where his back seemed to have burned up below his kimono. After taking in some calming breaths himself, he spoke up again.  
"There are things people don't like to talk about, you get that?"

Noiz managed to get himself into a sitting position and, having an iron taste in his mouth, wiped at his mouth. Seeing blood smeared over his ever bandaged hands, he put a hand on his cheek in an attempt to estimate the damage and then looked up to Koujaku in shock.

The other man simply crossed his arms in front of his chest and sneered at him.  
"What? Don't look at me like that. It's not like it's hurting for you, right? You can't feel pain, can you?"  
Noiz' eyes widened at that comment, but Koujaku went on after letting out air between his tightly pressed together teeth.  
"But I'm... I'm feeling pain right now. You hurt me. It hurts... thinking about those things, you know?"

Noiz looked back at him speechless and wide-eyed, while his already reddened cheek began to swell further from the hard slap against his face. His lips trembled slightly and tears began to form in his eyes.

Koujaku blinked and his words suddenly didn't sound as sure of himself as before.  
"What...? Why are you... crying? It didn't hurt, right?"

Noiz' lips opened like he wanted to say something, but then he pursed his lips, stood up a bit shakily, turned on his heels and ran way.

Koujaku was left there without knowing what to think about this, but then he turned towards the other end of the street as well and made his way back to main street of the Old Resident District, thinking that he at least had gotten rid of Noiz for good this time.


	6. Chapter 6

They were hop-hop-hopping around in their cage and looked so awfully fluffy that it made you want to touch them and never let go of them again and the twitching of their little noses was beyond adorable as well. Noiz sighed at the bunnies he was watching while squatting in front of their pen. He might be able to see them better when leaning over the small fence put around the bunnies, but Noiz choose not to, since he had once read that bunnies were afraid of danger from above and he didn't want to scare them. He enjoyed watching them too much for that, it soothed his mind and he sighed contently.

The old woman behind the counter looked up from sorting some things behind the register and gave Noiz a smile.  
"Feeling a little better already?"

Noiz looked over to her smiling face. She was a nice old lady who always kept a cheery atmosphere around her, even if you could see that age had slowed down her movements a bit already and that she had trouble doing certain things a bit. But she cared for the animals with the utmost of love in her store, so they always seemed happy as well. There seldom were many people around, though, so it was mostly just Noiz visiting the store from time to time. And when he came he only sat in front of the bunnies' den and stared at them for some time before leaving again. He could have bought some bunnies if he so wanted to, he probably wouldn't even have a problem buying the whole store, but he refrained from either of it. He was perfectly content with just watching the little animals hopping around in their cage and being their cute, cuddleworthy selves. Plus, if he were to purchase a pet, he was afraid to accidently hurt it by touching it the wrong way and he didn't want that.  
He absentmindedly rubbed against the cooling plaster the old woman had forced upon his cheek as soon as he had entered her shop this afternoon. He had told her that he was fine, but she insisted to at least let her do as much as to put that thing on his face. It wasn't really supposed to be used for swellings and she had apologized for not having anything else that was cool enough to be put on his cheek aside from a wet washcloth she had handed him first, but it had warmed up too soon again, so she had rummaged in her belongings until she had found that plaster. He wasn't even a customer to begin with, so Noiz had felt uncomfortable accepting her kindness, yet she had insisted to patch him up a little.

He smiled faintly and she took that as a "yes" to her question and quit it with a smiling "That's good then." before returning to what she had been doing earlier.

Then, out of nowhere, a very enraptured "Uwaaah~!" could be heard from outside the shop through its opened door. Noiz peeked over his shoulder and saw a white-haired man in a white coat topped with a yellow scarf with his hands and cheek pressed against the shop window, apparently viewing the aquarium visible from the outside. There were some plastic bags dangling from his wrists, too, so he might have been shopping before passing by this store.

The shopkeeper greeted him with a giggle and waved at him.  
"Ah, if it isn't Clear-kun. Why don't you come in, you can see the fish better from here."

"Yes, excuse the intrusion then.", Clear announced as he stepped into the shop and went straight around to look at the fish tank again. He seemed awfully happy as his eyes followed the movements of the fish and kept an eye out for the jellyfish especially.

Noiz looked at him halfway interested. So this was Clear? The last time Noiz had seen him the odd guy had still been wearing a gas mask over his face. So he had pinkish-red eyes then? Was this the reason he had hidden his face behind that gas mask before? Wouldn't sun glasses have sufficed if that was the case? But there didn't seem to be anything wrong with his face, so maybe the mask had just been a bad kind of fashion statement or something. Speaking of which, the clothes he was wearing were still kind of not fitting together, well he hadn't changed anything about those after all. His bubbly behaviour seemed to still be the same as well, and now that Noiz thought about it, he remembered Clear's voice for some reason, too.  
Whatever, Noiz wasn't going to start a conversation. He felt like his little break in front of the bunnies had ended right with Clear's appearance, so he rose from his position, went to the counter to put something down and headed for the door.

"Oh, you're leaving already?", the shopkeeper called after him, but he only rose a hand to wave at her without sparing her a look as he left.

Clear looked up from the fish tank and seemed to realize Noiz' presence only now, having been too much in awe with the jellyfish earlier.  
"Oh, if it isn't Noiz-san! It's been a while!"  
He made a few steps towards Noiz, but the young man only quit his joyful greeting by stopping for a second, gave him a side-glance accompanied by an acknowledging sound and then left the store after all.  
Clear looked puzzled upon being kind of ignored even though he had said hello to Noiz properly and really was curious about the fact that he had met him here of all places.

"Oh my, he did it again."

Clear turned around upon the shopkeeper's exclamation of surprise that sounded kind of distressed and made some steps to reach the counter.  
"Is something the matter?"

The old lady held some money in her hand and glanced at it kind of sorrowfully before giving Clear a slightly strained smile.  
"Oh, it's nothing to worry about, really. It's just that... The customer from before..."

"Ah, you mean Noiz-san?", Clear helped out with a smile and the old lady nodded.

"Yes, this young man always comes here to watch the bunnies and then leaves money on my counter on his way out, even though I've told him time and time again that he doesn't need to pay to see the bunnies. He always seems so relaxed when watching them, I don't mind his presence in the shop at all. And the amount of money he's leaving... it's always exactly the same amount as if he would have bought every bunny in the den. He could have afforded them dozens of times over if he wanted to, but he only puts the money here and leaves."

"Huuum?", Clear made a puzzled sound over her statement and tried to figure out Noiz' motives, when the lady spoke up again while putting the money inside of her register with a sad smile on her face.

"He probably knows that the store is not running well and just wants to make sure that the pets don't suffer from it."

"It's not running well?", Clear asked with a worried look on his face. "But it's such a nice store with such lovely animals, how come it's not selling then, if you don't mind me asking?"

The shopkeeper let out a little sigh before she answered him.  
"Most of the people are getting an artificial pet in form of an Allmate instead of a real, living animal nowadays. Allmates are easier to handle, so a lot or parents who have children interested in adopting a pet suggest for them to try out with an Allmate first and then the children keep the Allmate and don't want a real pet anymore. Plus, you don't have to care for feeding or cleaning them or taking them for walks or the like. They can be simply shut off if they ever grate on their owner's nerves or they can talk to them and they will even answer. It's hard to sell them a pet that's not providing that much benefits for their owner."

Clear got really sad about the old ladies' explanation and was thinking about how to cheer her up again, when a smile came back to her lips on her own.

"But that young man who left earlier, Noiz-kun, he's a good boy. He is in possession of some Allmates I believe, but he still has a caring heart for real animals. One day, when the sales were so low that I was about to have to close up the shop, suddenly there was a very generous amount of money on my banking account. At first I thought it to have been some kind of mistake but the bank employee told me the transfer had been labelled as 'gift' in the reference and that the account information was definitely correct, even if they had trouble tracing it back to its source. I think it was the doing of this young man as well. I believe he wanted to tell me to keep going and as long as it's still possible I'll try to do my best, so he can come in and watch the bunnies again anytime."

"Uhuhu...!"  
Clear had teared up at the shopkeeper's story and let out a cry now.  
"Yes, Noiz-san is a good person! I'm sure he is!"  
And then he started crying like a little kid, flustering the old woman, who was frantically searching for some tissues now.

* * *

A few streets away from the pet store, Noiz let out a "Tche!"-kind of sound on his way home, as he shamelessly listened in on the conversation Clear had with the shopkeeper. So his secret was out then, well whatever. Noiz had just wanted to test his tracker's functionality after he had naturally slipped Clear a cube on his way out of the store, which hadn't been a problem with Clear's coat pockets being as big as they were and him not paying his hands any attention as long as Noiz kept eye contact with him. He hadn't forgotten Koujaku's interest in Clear and Aoba and if there was no way to get Koujaku's interest about info on Ryuuhou to a point where he would succeed in getting closer to Koujaku, then maybe secrets about Aoba's and Clear's love life would have to do after all as a bargaining chip.

Noiz thoughtfully put his hand on top of his cheek still decorated by the cooling plaster.  
Maybe the trouble wouldn't be worth it again.  
Maybe he simply should give up now.  
He grit his teeth.  
Why did he have to fall for this guy of all people?  
He was just...!

The memory of what Koujaku had said to him earlier still hurt and Noiz cursed at himself for remembering the situation he had so desperately tried to forget by cooling off his head in front of the bunnies.

"Kh..!"

Goddamn asshole!  
Fucking prick!  
Stupid jerk!  
He cursed in his mind while heading down the street.

* * *

Koujaku.  
Couldn't.  
Sleep.

Whenever he tried to close his eyes, the events of the day resurfaced in front of his inner eye and the hurt look on Noiz' face after he had manhandled him would haunt his consciousness. Slapping him for intruding on his secrets was one thing - even if it had been probably too hard -, but half-strangling him, too, that definitely had been over the top, so much for Koujaku's guilt from his actions alone. But he couldn't keep himself back from mocking Noiz then, too, he had just been so furious with him at that point, but the way the young man had looked back at him, had even cried...  
Koujaku let out a frustrated sound and turned to the other side of his bed for the umpteenth time that night.

Part of him thought Noiz had deserved what he had done to him, but another part strongly held against that and told him that he had gone too far nevertheless.  
"AAARGH!"  
Koujaku grabbed his head and ruffled up his hair to an almost hurtful degree.

"P! Your stress level has hit a dangerous height! Counter measures are recommended.", a high-pitched voice announced from out of nowhere.

"Eh?"  
Koujaku blinked. Where had that message come from now? It had been a tiny, robotic sound, but Beni was in sleep mode in his favorite place on a decorative tree stump in Koujaku's room, and the voice hadn't sounded like him at all. If Koujaku wasn't mistaken, that kind of voice belonged to one of Noiz' cubes. But he had thrown that thing out twice before, it couldn't be here, could it?

Sure enough, when Koujaku got out of bed, rummaged through the clothes he had put aside to let them air out and found his hair making accessory bag buried below the fabric, a green-black cube with a bunny head design looked back at him. Koujaku sighed in defeat as he took the Allmate out of his bag and watched it sitting on his palm.

"You really are a persistent one, aren't you?"

"P!", the cube chimed as if to confirm Koujaku's comment.

Koujaku scratched his head as he sat down on the floor cross-legged, before placing the cube in front of himself. Then he leant his back against his armoire.  
"They say that Allmates adopt the behaviour of their owners, so I guess Noiz would be the same then, too?"

"P! Noiz said not to let you out of my sight, no matter what. It is very important!", the cube underlined its statement by hopping up and down insistently.

Koujaku buried his face in one hand and sighed. He felt like he might need a cigarette soon.  
"You said something similar before. That you need to report literally everything about me to him, or something like that."

"P!", the cube confirmed and stopped hopping around, its tone changing to sound more emphatic as it continued, "Noiz is important to Usagi, so Usagi wants Noiz to be happy. But Noiz is not happy at the moment, Usagi can tell from the data exchange with the others."

Koujaku glanced up to give the cube a surprised look.  
"You have a network open to exchange data about your owner?"

"P!", the bunny cube confirmed again with a hop, "It's to make sure Noiz is alright! Noiz gets hurt very often, but cannot recognize everything by himself, so Usagi needs to keep an eye on him!"

Koujaku huffed a soft laugh upon the Allmate's explanation. It seemed to be more attached to its owner than he had expected it to be.

The cube's facial expression hadn't changed, but the next time it spoke it sounded saddened.  
"Noiz is suffering from the wound Koujaku gave him today, but the worse suffering comes from the inside. His mood data suggests he is depressed at the moment."

Koujaku blinked as he felt newly lit guilt prick on him and then the cube gave a soft hop when it asked him a question.

"Can't Koujaku do something to cheer Noiz up?"

"Cheer him up you say.", Koujaku was a little puzzled at this request and put a hand to his mouth in a thinking gesture, then his brows furrowed.  
"Wait, why would I do this? And how-"

"Kiss Noiz! Kiss Noiz!", the cube jumped up and down, trilling.

"Wha-what are you saying?!"  
Usagimodoki's suggestion had put Koujaku off his stride and made him blush.

"Kissing is good for lifting up the mood!", the cube simply explained, "Sets free happiness hormones! Happiness hormones make people feel good again!"

"Even if you say so, why should I do this?!"  
Koujaku banged his fist on the floor in front of the cube, startling it.  
"He just slammed my past in my face earlier to prove how good an informant he is and to torment me. And then he had the nerve to suggest to me to sell my body to him in exchange for data on Ryuuhou! I've never felt that degraded before!"  
Koujaku turned away from the cube and sulked with his arms crossed in front of his chest.

Noiz' Allmate was quiet for a bit before it spoke again.  
"Noiz likes Koujaku, Usagi is sure of that, because when Noiz researched data about Koujaku, he was very upset over his findings."

"Tche, upset, my ass. I can't even imagine that.", Koujaku waved a hand in disbelief to put the cube off.

Usagimodoki was quiet for another second, probably thinking what to do next, then it simply beeped and virtualized a screen with a video that showed a record of Noiz in his room while researching Koujaku's past.  
[[Heilige Scheiße...!]]  
Koujaku had pricked up his ears already, when the sound of the virtual monitor visualizing had reached him, but as he heard the foreign swearing, he turned around to look at the screen projected in front of him, too. There clearly sat Noiz in his room surrounded by various monitors and looked at some data in front of him with a taken aback look on his face and a hand slapped in front of his mouth. His eyes moved over the text he was reading again and again like he wanted to make sure what he had read was correct. Then he sighed with a sorrowful expression on his face.  
[[So that's why you call yourself a monster? Did the guys you slayed not deserve it after all? How much did they hurt you to make a moronic, caring guy like you hurt them in turn to that extent in the first place?]]  
Usagimodoki ended the data transfer at this point and Koujaku was left baffled.  
"Noiz was upset. He was upset that Koujaku had to suffer. This strongly suggests that Noiz must care for Koujaku, so Usagi concludes that Noiz likes him. But Noiz had a fight with Koujaku today, so now he is upset again. But when you kiss a person that you like you get the happiness hormones, so you won't be depressed anymore. So Usagi wants Koujaku to kiss Noiz!"

The Allmate was jumping up and down to underline its point again, squeaking "Kiss Noiz! Kiss Noiz!" until Koujaku let out a deep sigh through his nose and held up a hand to stop the bunny Allmate from unnerving him.

"Fine, fine, I'll think about it!"

"Think about it?", the cube repeated.

"Yeah, yeah, just give me a minute."  
Koujaku let out another deep sigh and massaged the base of his nose.  
If he were to even consider kissing the brat for whatever reason, he would have to meet with him first and then he probably would have to apologize before anything like kissing was even so much as in his grasp - that was if he was going to kiss him at all.  
But the more important thing for him was, that apologizing to Noiz meant he had to give in first and honestly, Koujaku was having a hard time fighting with his pride here.  
Why should he give in first?  
Noiz was the one who had provoked him, it was just the outcome that sat wrong with Koujaku.

"One minute has gone by. Dial Noiz now?", the cube sitting in front of Koujaku pressed the matter.

Koujaku let out an exasperated grunt and was about to shout at the cube not to take everything so literally, when the cube acted on its own.

"Thinking too much makes things more difficult for humans! Better meet quickly and make up to be happy again!"  
That said, the cube dialed Noiz' number already, or rather it seemed to have hijacked Koujaku's coil to let him dial its master's number instead. Koujaku couldn't even react in time before his phoning screen popped up from his wrist and the sound of it trying to make a connection to the number being called resonated.

* * *

_It was dark all around him and Noiz' own voice echoed inside of his head as he screamed at a Koujaku with his back turned to him._  
_'I've tried everything I could think of... so why can't you be mine?'_

_Koujaku turned around with a smile on his face, that instantly brightened the scenery, and embraced him when he answered him with a whisper in his ear._  
_'But I am yours.'_

"Gh...!"  
Noiz woke up from his dream with tears streaming down his face.

A dream...

"...Shit...!"  
He sat up in his bed, wiping at his wet face.

Why couldn't't this have been reality?  
Why did he have to want him so badly?

He sighed and then clenched his fists.

He wouldn't't give up yet.  
Not... yet.

Just then the reason he had woken up in the middle of the night reached his consciousness for real: his coil was ringing, someone was calling him.

"This better be important.", he grunted before looking at the number displayed and gave a surprised gasp. Not knowing what to do, Noiz let it ring another two to three times before answering the call with a rather cranky tone in his voice.

"What is it?"

* * *

Koujaku's mouth worked, but no words came out as he looked to and fro between Noiz' virtual mugshot from his coil's screen and the cube in his room staring at him expectantly.

Noiz' voice seemed angered as he talked again.  
"If this was supposed to be a prank call, old man, then you should try to suppress your number, you idiot. Bye then!"

"Wait!", Koujaku reached out his hand towards the virtual screen on the spur of the moment, before he realized the gesture to have been completely pointless and slapped a hand to his forehead.  
"Gah! Why does it have to be like that?"

"..."  
Noiz kept silent for a moment, before he talked again.  
"Come again?"

Koujaku shook his head with his hand still plastered to his forehead, he was simply a bit out of it right now.  
"No, it's nothing. I was just surprised that your spying cube was able to hijack my phone and dial your number. What kind of a thing is this cube exactly?"

Noiz didn't say anything for a few seconds, but then huffed something akin to a short laugh through his nose.  
"It's an Allmate, simple as that. It's a machine with software put inside it, what kind of software is not really limited. But I doubt that's what you really wanted to talk about, or what Usagimodoki wanted you to talk about to me at least."  
Noiz' voice had a somewhat chiding undertone as he addressed his Allmate, but the bunny cube only let out an innocent "P?" at Noiz' words.

Koujaku took a deep breath.  
"It's about this afternoon. Well... I..."  
He had to apologize.  
How hard could it be?  
He should just say it and be done with it!  
Koujaku shouted those things at himself from the inside of his mind, but didn't get it out through his gritted teeth.  
Then he let out some air to release a bit of pressure.  
"Can we meet at your place? I have something to talk to you about that's no good over the phone."

Noiz kept silent for a moment, but then let out a sigh himself and said: "Okay. See you in a bit then."  
He hung up.

Koujaku stared at his virtual phone screen telling him that his call had ended for another second before he shut it off, too, and got up to put his clothes back on. The bunny cube jubilated a little by hopping a few times on the floor and ended it with a somersault, before it made its way back into Koujaku's bag. It was still on surveillance duty after all.

* * *

Shortly later, Koujaku was on his way to Noiz' apartment and to his own surprise it didn't take him as long as he had expected to reach his address. The last time he had made his way here, it had been from Aoba's home, though, so maybe his perception of how much time was needed to get to Noiz' place had not been that accurately then. It hadn't even taken him half an hour to arrive at his destination, more like a good quarter of an hour, it felt kind of weird. Noiz had sounded pretty grumpy when he had answered his coil and it was the middle of the night right now, so was it even appropriate to be practically on his doorstep already?

Before he could wonder any longer if he should ring the doorbell, the frontdoor was opened in a swift movement and a grumpy Noiz stared at him.  
"Just come inside, if you're here already."

"How, did you...?"  
No, why was he asking? The damn cube must have been with him again, Noiz might simply have been notified of where he was before he even reached his destination. This fact alone was kind of scary, but Koujaku had no time to think about that, since the deep furrow between Noiz' brows on his forehead caught his attention.  
"Sorry for the intrusion.", Koujaku said absentmindedly while stepping inside and taking off his shoes by the threshold.

His view followed Noiz, who was wearing only half of his usual attire, that consisted of a long-sleeved, black sweatshirt, his usual black and green pants with black leggings underneath them, but without the usual cluster of Allmates dangling from his hips, and a pair of green socks on his feet. He carried a see-through plastic bag with himself through his apartment, apparently in search of things to discard off. The bag was already half-filled with some empty pizza boxes, wrapping paper from different types of candy, empty bags of chips and a few cups and cans of soft drinks. With a few opened up bags of sweets strewn about the table and by the kitchen and some clothes being simply put on top of a not too neatly made bed the whole place wasn't kept as orderly as the last time Koujaku had set a foot in here. Maybe Noiz had underestimated the time Koujaku would need to come to his place as well, but he had still tried to get at least some kind of tidiness into the room before Koujaku had arrived. Maybe it was his way of showing politeness towards a guest or something.  
Koujaku found it a little adorable to be honest.

Then he heard Noiz let out a sigh through his nose, saw him knotting up the trash bag and put it into a corner of the kitchen where it wouldn't attract too much attention. Then he rinsed his hands in the kitchen sink and turned towards Koujaku while drying his hands with some paper towels.

"So? What did you come here for?"

Oh no, he couldn't resist...  
"Your cube advised me to come kissing you since you looked so grumpy.", Koujaku said with a grin on his face.

Noiz jolted up slightly, before turning his head around to the corner of the room where most of his cubes were stacked up and they seemed to flinch a little with a synced, squeaked "P!" and an aura about them like they had gotten caught red-handed.  
Noiz sighed - his soul might be fading a little more today as well.

Koujaku's grin broadened, but he had a bit of a hard time keeping up the conversation and so his gaze wandered around Noiz' apartment again, his attention being drawn to an opened up ice cream container sitting on the kitchen counter with a spoon stuck into it. There was condensation forming on the outside of the packaging and the ice had melted quite a bit like it had been kind of forgotten.  
Eating tons of sweets, fast food and ice cream.  
Was this Noiz' way of sulking?  
This was kind of...

"Ice cream?", Koujaku uttered and Noiz' followed his view before he answered him as indifferently as possible.

"Yeah."

"Vanilla flavour?", he grinned and Noiz was kind of embarrassed of being questioned over something like that.

"I don't like chocolate."

Koujaku chuckled: "I see."  
He looked at the ice cream container intently.  
"Mind if I have a taste?"

Noiz sighed through his nose and shrugged.  
"Knock yourself out."

Koujaku took a few steps to reach the counter, took the spoon to dip it into the melty ice cream and then headed over to Noiz and lightly shoved the spoon inside the other's mouth. Noiz looked at Koujaku in irritation with the spoon hanging from his corners of the mouth, but before he could say anything Koujaku just smiled, took the spoon out again and, cupping Noiz' face, kissed him just like that with his tongue entering Noiz' lips and Koujaku licking the ice cream out of Noiz' mouth like a cat.

"...!"  
Noiz stared at him with wide open eyes in utter surprise and appeared to be very flustered, which was a nice change to his indifferent attitude from before in Koujaku's opinion as he looked back at him in a sly way with half-opened eyes and grinned a little. He continued kissing Noiz, even going so far as to let his tip of the tongue slide over Noiz' cut inside of his mouth, and the young man was just about to shut his eyes and to get into the kiss, when it was over all too soon with no trace of ice cream left in their mouths and Koujaku parting from his lips again.  
Noiz gave him an irritated look and stammered: "What... was that?"

Koujaku only smirked back at him.  
"Ice cream, vanilla flavour. Oh, and a kiss."

"Kh...!"  
Noiz wanted to yell at him if he was some kind of idiot, but Koujaku continued to speak with a somewhat rueful look in his eyes.

"And a little apology for what I've done to you this afternoon."

Noiz didn't say anything to that, but brushed over his mouth with the back of his hand, looking away. He was still rather sullen and thought for a moment about what to say before his light green eyes made contact with Koujaku's red ones again.  
"Did you know that there are three ways people usually react to me, when they learn that I cannot feel pain?", he started a new conversation and appeared to bite back on a deeply rooted sadness inside of him, trying to cover it up with his usual stoicism, but failed when is words came out a tad too shaky for that.  
"They are either disgusted with me, afraid of me, or they think they can do whatever they want with me, since I cannot feel the pain anyway."  
His voice turned significantly more bitter as his eyes locked with Koujaku's again.  
"I thought you were different, but I guess I was wrong about that."  
He pressed his teeth together too hard, forcing his lips into a thin line, and then sniffed and rubbed his nose.  
"You think just because I cannot feel pain, I cannot feel anything at all, but that's not true, you know? It isn't...! I know what emotional pain is. I know how it hurts inside of you, even if I don't know how it hurts from the outside. But that constricting feeling in your chest or the sadness in your heart, I know all of those, too."  
The hurt in his tone even increased, when he finally yelled: "So, don't treat me like I'm dead inside, okay?!"

Koujaku, who had been stunned by Noiz' outburst of emotions, finally spoke up again, his voice sounding honest but a bit hurt as well.  
"Look, I am sorry for how I treated you, I honestly am. But you intruded on my privacy and touched upon a subject I'd rather forget ever happened. You were just too close and it hurt me. Being reminded of that day... it's the worst kind of thing! I wanted to get out that situation, so I snapped, but I know that I went over the top with what I did and with what I said to you then."

Noiz sniffed again.  
"I didn't mean... to hurt you."  
He was not about to just take Koujaku's reprimand like that however.  
"You didn't even let me finish properly back then...!"

Koujaku blinked.  
"You weren't finished? What more did you want to say then?"

Noiz seemed to have an uncharacteristically hard time coming up with the right words, as he appeared to be quite worn out by the whole affair already.  
"I just... wanted to... tell you that... even if you did all of those things in your past... even if you hurt and killed people, it's clear that you regret it deeply. I don't know what drove you to do this yet, but I know you're not the kind of guy who would blindly go on a rampage, at least not to that degree. You wear your mother's kimono like a reminder of what you have done and you regret it. You're not... a monster. You just made a mistake and I... I wanted you to know that I don't judge you for that. For me you are still... someone I want to be with."

Koujaku's eyes widened to a point where it looked like they were about to fall out of his head. Noiz' cheeks had become more and more red the longer he had spoken and now that Koujaku looked closer, his eyes seemed awfully red, too, maybe he had been crying before - a sight Koujaku could hardly imagine, even if he could clearly see that Noiz was acting beside himself.

"God, that was so pathetic, I don't know what's wrong with me today."  
Noiz grumbled and tried very hard to hold back his tears now, the fact that he was this close to crying again seemed to ashame him greatly. He must have really been on edge for a while now and talking about all of this had worn down his usual inner, protective walls.

Koujaku didn't say anything to him, but slowly drew Noiz into a tight embrace, before the young man could turn away, and slowly let out his breath through his nose over the crown of Noiz' hair. Noiz was baffled at first by the development of events, his immediate response being to try to run away, but then he took one, two breaths of air, inhaling Koujaku's scent and decided to nuzzle Koujaku's neck instead while hesitantly returning his embrace.

* * *

_[A/N: The scene with Koujaku feeding Noiz some ice cream was inspired by a 4-koma-work by the artist Black Cherry/3B-KnK.]_


	7. Chapter 7

Noiz enjoyed the embrace for a while and tried to concentrate on the fact that he was hugged at the moment, on the feeling of being embraced tightly, even if he felt the pressure on his body more distant that it really was. Koujaku must be very warm, Noiz was sure about it, there must be more heat than just that inkling of a faint warmth he could recognize right now and he tried to imagine it being more intense. If he just associated warmth with tightness and that with Koujaku in his mind...  
No, this was bordering on being depressing, so he wriggled out of Koujaku's embrace again, before it could get too awkward for him. He was clearly embarrassed as he didn't look Koujaku in the eye while talking to him with a bit of a sullen tone in his voice.  
"Uh, thanks. I think... I'm good again."  
Weirdly enough, he really felt quite recovered for some reason. Maybe it was the fact that Koujaku had actually apologized to him in contrast to other people, which put him on Noiz' good side again. Clearing his throat, he pondered whether he should introduce the topic they had talked about this afternoon again after how it had gone down previously. But at the same time he remembered how Koujaku's lips and tongue had tasted in that weird vanilla-kiss he had served him a few minutes ago and he just wanted more of that. Being convinced that he couldn't demand further displays of affection without providing something in return, he took the risk and made Koujaku an offer again.

"Say, about what we've talked before this afternoon, you're still interested in information on that Ryuuhou-guy, right?"

Koujaku flinched and his expression took a sudden turn for the worse, but Noiz lifted up his hands in a defensive gesture before he continued to speak.  
"Relax, I thought things over and I'm willing to ease the deal for you, because... I've been an asshole, too, I guess."  
He glanced back at Koujaku, testing the waters, but the other seemed to be willing to listen to what he had to say without freaking out this time, so Noiz went on.  
"How about this: You get that info where this Ryuuhou-guy is, plus I'll find a way to get you to him as soon as possible. All you have to give me in return for that now is a slight payment in advance and the rest you can give me when your little meeting is over."

Koujaku smiled distrustfully at the way Noiz tried to handle things again.  
"And what is this 'prepayment' gonna be this time? Actual money? I remember you wanting me to whore myself to you last time this came up."

Noiz furrowed his short brows at Koujaku's choice of words and gave him a disapproving look.  
"Stop calling it that, it's annoying! I still want to do it with you, you know? But I don't like you seeing it as selling yourself to me, that's not what I'm after."  
He didn't want to humiliate Koujaku with the act after all, but that was what it sounded like to him if Koujaku said it that way, although it was hard to tell him what exactly he was after instead. It would sound so damn cheesy that the words simply resisted coming out of his mouth, so he put his hands in his pants pockets and mindlessly kicked at the air with one foot instead.

Koujaku was a little abashed that Noiz probably hinted at wanting more than physical attention from him. It was kind of flattering, but awkward at the same time, so he had trouble making eye contact and scratched his cheek absentmindedly.  
"But why are you so set on-"

"I'll wait a little longer for that, until after you've cleared your differences with that other guy.", Noiz interjected him and then added while staring at him straight: "For now... I'll settle with another kiss."

Koujaku blinked, then laughed in amusement.  
"A kiss again? That's it now? Are you a little princess who wants to be kissed all day long or something?"

"Don't diss me!", Noiz snorted angrily, "I mean a real kiss, not that half-assed version from before with the ice cream and shit!"  
He closed the distance to Koujaku, grabbed him by his collar and gave him a piercing stare.  
"You're capable of this, I've already tasted it once, even if you've been asleep then. It was so damn good that I can't get it out of my mind for fucks sake! You made me feel all weird!"  
Noiz became a little red at his last words and turned his head away while letting go of Koujaku's clothes.

Koujaku was surprised Noiz would refer to that night with him at Mizuki's bar again. He still couldn't remember having kissed Noiz back then, but he faintly remembered to have dreamed about Aoba. So he wanted him to kiss him like he would have kissed Aoba? Was that even possible? He didn't want Noiz like he wanted Aoba after all. There wasn't any longing inside of him that would be quenched when he would kiss Noiz. It would be just a payment for a deal, no real feelings involved from Koujaku's side there.  
Looking at Noiz, who still waited for his answer, Koujaku noticed a kind of fidgety atmosphere around the other. Noiz always acted pretty self-assured, so having seen him a little out of it today had been kind of surprising to Koujaku earlier already, maybe even a little bit charming, explaining why he had just felt like hugging him then. And now that he thought about it, the guy had said that he had fallen for him the other night and that he wanted him pretty much desperately was very obvious as well. So Koujaku couldn't deny that there were real feelings involved from Noiz' side at the very least.

Koujaku sighed.

He did want that information about Ryuuhou badly, that much was true. But if he agreed to do this now, he would have to sleep with Noiz afterwards, too. A deal was a deal and a real man kept his promises. But Noiz really did seem to want more from him than just for Koujaku to give him bodily attention. The Noiz Koujaku had thought to know from only a few days ago might have offered him the same deal, but as soon as he would decline, the kid would have marched off and scorned him for refusing a perfectly fine deal without much of a care. Yet, here Noiz was, lowering his standards for Koujaku and telling him to wait for him, as if he hoped that Koujaku would reconsider with time.  
Well, at least in that kind of light he could feel less used when the time would come that Noiz demanded his other half of the deal to be kept. Although it didn't feel much better to see sleeping with Noiz as a payment on contrast to doing it with Noiz as somebody who had fallen for him without returning the guy's feelings to be honest. But maybe that way he could show Noiz then that it simply was no use to get closer to him and that sleeping with him would change nothing about that fact. Koujaku felt a little uncomfortable to pretty much be so sure he might break the kid's heart when that day arrived, since even if he had his cute moments that made Koujaku want to be nice to him for some reason, he didn't feel like something had clicked between the two of them or the like. But for now he believed that making that deal with Noiz was a way that both of them would kind of get what they wanted: Koujaku could get back at Ryuuhou and Noiz would get the realization that he ought to give up on him before the issue would be long-drawn-out and got even more complicated.

Koujaku sighed again, but then spoke with his mind made up.  
"Aright, you shall have your deal. A 'real kiss' it is then."

"Seriously?", Noiz blinked in confusion, obviously having been sure for his offer to be declined yet again.

"Yeah."  
Koujaku nodded and took hold of Noiz' chin with a swift gesture. He had done it before, so he had calmed down a bit about the kissing-a-guy-and-Noiz-of-all-people-part of the affair already. So he entered his half opened mouth without giving Noiz any more time to prepare himself for it. Koujaku's tongue stroked against Noiz' almost lazily as if wanting to stake out the territory first, tasting him and hesitantly began exploring his mouth: the inside of his cheeks - including the wounded part again - the roof of his mouth, his teeth and of course the metallic nubs piercing Noiz' tongue. Koujaku still was not fond of these things, but they belonged to Noiz' mouth so he examined them - shape, taste and texture.

Noiz' initial astonishment faded away while he let Koujaku do what he wanted, but after a few moments he frowned. Something was missing. Sure, Koujaku was kissing him with tongue and all and it wasn't a bad kiss or anything, but the heat he had shown Noiz when mistaking him for Aoba in his sleep then simply wasn't there now. It wasn't even half as sweet as that ridiculous vanilla-kiss from earlier either. It was like Koujaku was holding back, or just not feeling it this time, so Noiz broke the kiss.

"Sorry, old man, but do you really want to do this?", he asked Koujaku with a slightly disappointed tone in his voice, "Doesn't feel like it to me."

"Eh?", Koujaku looked at him like he didn't know what Noiz was going on about, "What do you mean? We're kissing, aren't w-?"

"Yeah, we're kissing, but it doesn't feel right.", Noiz interrupted him and gave Koujaku a half pouting, half angry kind of look, "I know you can do better than this."

Koujaku blinked.  
Did he really expect him to be able to reproduce the same feelings he had for Aoba for Noiz now? This was impossible for two reasons: first, Noiz wasn't Aoba, so those kinds of feelings wouldn't come up in the first place. And secondly, did he really want Koujaku to think about another person while kissing him? Well, sure it would make things easier for Koujaku, but he somehow felt that this was the wrong way to do things. And it was pretty hard to pretend that Noiz was supposed to be Aoba anyway, they simply were much too different in character, looks and pretty much everything else.

Koujaku rose a curious eyebrow at his unsatisfied counterpart. Technically he already had fulfilled his part of the "prepayment deal" now, hadn't he? Noiz hadn't stated that he had to like the kiss after all, but it still irked Koujaku to have a dissatisfied adorer.  
"Why are you even so obsessed with kissing in the first place? You don't seem like the romantic guy to me."

Noiz gave him a "Are you serious?"-kind of look, then averted his eyes and allowed himself a moment of not being sure if admitting it was a good idea or not, but then he looked back at Koujaku and just flat out told him.  
"I can feel you best with my tongue. Your heat, your touch, it's..." He blushed. "My tongue is the only part of my body that will allow me to feel those kind of things properly, so... the feedback is pretty intense for me."

Koujaku perked his eyebrows up.  
Now this bit of information was new to him.  
"You can't even feel heat? Not even touch? I thought it was just pain?"

Noiz pressed his lips into a thin line as he grit his teeth, but then chose to explain further.  
"It's not like I couldn't feel it at all, it's just... a pretty vague kind of feeling. It's like... It's like I'm wearing a thick layer of rubber on top of my skin, so whatever sensation I get from my surroundings reach me just barely, if at all. So when somebody was touching me for example, he would have to grab me pretty strongly for me to notice it. People often think that I like pain because the way I want to be treated might be hurtful for others. But for me... it's just enough to feel anything at all."

Koujaku frowned and thought for a moment, then a small smile showed up on his lips.  
"So... when you tell me to kiss you, tongue and all... You're actually offering me your most sensitive part up on a silver platter and just want to feel me?"

Noiz was embarrassed about Koujaku's wording and his mouth worked without him saying anything, but then he nodded faintly with the light blush already spreading over his cheeks turning darker.

Koujaku let out a soft breath between his lips. It was sad to know how limited Noiz' cognitive abilities really were, but that was precisely the reason why it seemed kind of adorable that he wanted for Koujaku to give him attention in a way he would be able to feel. Maybe there was a way to make him feel good if he kept that in mind, so he grabbed for Noiz' waist and pulled him closer to him.  
"Let's try this again then."  
Koujaku entered Noiz' mouth with new-found bravado, stroking the other's tongue enthusiastically and twining it around Noiz', urging him to answer his movements.

Noiz just went with the flow and closed his eyes to concentrate on the feeling of the newly lit fire in his mouth. Koujaku teased and sucked on his tongue, occasionally licking at his lips and sucking at them, even playfully biting Noiz' lower lip from time to time. Heat began to rise between the two of them and not just from the outside due to being close to each other.

"Uhm...! Mh... Nh...!"

Yeah, this was the feeling he had longed for: a ravaging kind of kiss that made you addicted to the other's lips and you wished for it to never stop. Koujaku's heat seeped into Noiz constantly, while he kept on plundering the other's mouth. A ticklish feeling started to rise from the young man's belly and flooded his whole body now. It was a hot, tingling sensation that came from the inside rather than from his numbed outside, so he was swept away by it with no resistance and answered Koujaku's one-armed embrace by folding his arms around Koujaku's neck. Though, as he enjoyed the kiss a whole lot now, Noiz felt like he was going to be out of air very soon, since he had more and more trouble catching his breath. No matter how he tried to breath - through his mouth or through his nose - he just didn't seem to get any oxygen back into his lungs, while their tongues fought in his mouth, it was nearly suffocating, yet he wanted for it to go on and on.

"Hff...! Ah...! Nh...! Fff...! Hah...!"

Then there was this unpleasant, constrained feeling coming from below his waist-line now. He had gotten a boner just from kissing this man - again - and he was even suggestively pushing his hip against the other without realizing he was doing it at first. Cursing at himself for his reaction that made him want more and distracted him from enjoying just kissing Koujaku, Noiz tried to break away from him, but the other wouldn't let him, urging him on even more by rubbing his thigh against Noiz' crotch instead.

"Mh?! Uhn...!"

Noiz was confused.  
What was the meaning of this?  
Koujaku knew he was pretty aroused now, didn't he? But he had said he didn't want to have sex with him, so Noiz had given him another option instead. Yet, why would he keep on provoking him?  
His breath came in short, heated gasps and he tried to stay away long enough from Koujaku's lips to form words with his mouth instead.

"What... are you... doing...? I am...! Don't you see that I...?!"

Koujaku wouldn't let up in catching Noiz' tongue and wrapping his own around Noiz', licking the inside of his mouth and exchanging hot breaths and saliva with him, though. Then he slid one hand down Noiz' body - waist, ass and inner thighs - until it settled on top of his bulging pants, rubbing against it and drawing a shudder out of the younger man. Noiz heard Koujaku making a satisfied sound through his nose at his response, then his buckle was undone, his pants zipped open and Koujaku went for his half-hard dick.

"He-Hey...!", Noiz tried to protest, since he didn't want to be left hanging in the middle, if Koujaku changed his mind about this after all, but then he was muted by Koujaku's lips on top of his again, while the other apparently had decided to give him a handjob as an extra for whatever reason he had. Maybe he should just stop complaining and begin to indulge in what he got from him instead.

Koujaku simply enjoyed Noiz' reactions far too much for his own good. Seeing Noiz swept away by the pleasure to such a degree by just kissing had been too tempting for him not to tease him further and his own mind drowned a bit in the heat of the moment as well.  
He could feel the irritating shape and texture of the genital piercing on Noiz' manhood with his hand, but he wasn't as disgusted by them now as he had been in the past. If he was right, those things were supposed to increase pleasure during intercourse, but he wasn't sure if this was only something for the receptive partner or for Noiz' own enjoyment as well. Trying to get a reaction out of him out of curiosity, he circled the barbell piercings with his thumb, stroking them in a way he thought the pressure must reach Noiz, but hopefully wasn't harmful to him. He preferred to check on that.  
"Does it feel good?"

Noiz gasped under his caress and then nodded.  
"Ah...! Feels... Feels great...! Ha...!"

It felt just right. Koujaku's hand had gripped him hard but not too hard, so Noiz could feel his movements quite nicely as he stroked his erection up and down and tried to massage his pierced parts as well. Noiz breathed through his nose, his hot breath tickling Koujaku's ear and then the other turned his head to nibble on Noiz' right, less heavily pierced earlobe. The young man could hear him do it rather than feel it - the sound of Koujaku's breath and the wet noises his tongue made against his ear were evidence enough - that and the knowledge what Koujaku was doing was enough to make him hitch a breath in return. Koujaku grinned and coaxed Noiz into turning his head towards him with his eyes and then kissed him once more. His kiss was sloppier than before but no less intimate as he entangled their tongues anew and then sucked at Noiz' tip of his tongue to tease him.  
Noiz enjoyed Koujaku's heat in his mouth, that was almost familiar to him by now, and the added wetness made his saliva overflow a little as Koujaku had decided to explore his tongue piercings even more inquisitively now. Their eyes met occasionally when Noiz opened them a little in between their kisses, but he mostly kept them close to concentrate on the feeling of it only. Koujaku either was the kind of guy who didn't close his eyes during kisses or happened to open them at the same time Noiz did, as their eyes would meet pretty much every time.

Koujaku couldn't deny the thought that the way Noiz looked at him with his normally piercing, light-green eyes swimming in a feverish haze by now had something cute. And he was so unusually docile, well probably just swept away by emotions, but still rather tame compared to what he was used to. It made Koujaku want to tease him and give him what he wanted at the same time. Then there was the fact that Noiz' dry voice breathing in his ear and his way of trying to keep down his moans, but failing every so often and gasping needily instead, was unexpectedly arousing for Koujaku. Plus, they stood very close to each other, so it was pretty warm wherever their bodies touched. Koujaku swallowed hard as the realization hit him, that he had gotten a boner himself, as well.

He was in a dilemma now.  
Should he just add his erection to Noiz' and get off together with him?  
Ah, but wouldn't that be a little too revealing and only rise Noiz' hopes that intercourse with Koujaku beyond foreplay was not as far from his grasp as he might have thought it to be?  
Oh, but they were so close to each other, the young man could probably tell what situation Koujaku was in, since Koujaku's erection pretty much pressed directly against Noiz' body anyway.  
But wait, hadn't Noiz said that his sense of touch was that limited that he had trouble feeling a lot of things? Erections poking out from beneath your clothes probably counted to the "hard to tell if it's there"-category, if he didn't see it. And it didn't look like Noiz had noticed anything yet. Koujaku suddenly didn't know if he should be happy or frustrated about that fact. His whole thought process was a mess at the moment. But he knew that he would have to get rid of that tension in his groin area eventually, since he couldn't walk back home like that. And as soon as he would move away from Noiz' body again, the other would probably see what state he was in anyhow and maybe demand to be paid in full then and there after all. Koujaku didn't want the situation to turn out like that.

Ah, fuck it all and just do it!  
That was the only thought that came out on top in Koujaku's hazy mind and he just unzipped his pants and freed his erection to rub it against Noiz' hard-on, that already leaked precum, leading to his fluids being smeared between the two of them as he cupped both their erections and stroke them at the same time now.

The young man had noticed Koujaku's motions and had followed them with his eyes, his view turning slightly surprised or rather interested in the fact, when he saw that Koujaku was as turned on as he was and then felt his hardness press against his own directly with Koujaku's hand added to it. Looking back into Koujaku's eyes, Noiz didn't say anything about that, though, and only lowered his eyelids to give off a suggestive look as if wanting to encourage Koujaku in what he had in mind already. His unspoken statement was underlined by Noiz pushing up his hips lightly and rubbing their erections together with the motion.  
Koujaku let out a gasp at the sudden friction, before he cupped both their erections with his hand and began stroking them together. His free hand grabbed at Noiz' ass possessively, before he positioned it on Noiz' hip to get a better grip on him and began moving his hips tentatively until he found a rhythm with Noiz that felt best.

Noiz' hard, metallic genital piercings rubbed against his cock and the raw kind of feeling was irritating for Koujaku at first, but the longer it lasted, the better it began to feel for Koujaku.  
"Ah...! Hah...!", Koujaku couldn't stop himself from moaning anymore and let out his voice a bit now, too.

Noiz still watched him and breathed shortly after or together with him, as if to answer Koujaku's moans with his own. He seemed dazed, but smiled a little as he did so. Plus, his left hand behind Koujaku's neck had begun to play with Koujaku's ponytail a little by flipping a few strands of his hair through his fingers lazily. Koujaku didn't know why he did this, since he doubted that he could feel his hair brushing against his skin, but maybe Noiz just didn't know what to do with his fingers right now or it was his way of displaying affection towards him.

Koujaku smiled back at him and Noiz answered him with a few, lowly breathed words: "Do you feel good, too?"

Koujaku blinked, then smiled again.  
"Yeah. Feels good."

Noiz seemed content with Koujaku's answer and closed his eyes to concentrate on the feeling again.

They had been pretty aroused from just kissing and were on edge already, so it didn't take long until they were on the verge of coming, too, while moving their hips slowly, yet intensely against each other.

"Nh...! Uh...!"  
Koujaku's deep voice resonated in Noiz' ear as he moaned and Noiz let out breathy gasps in return.  
"Are you close?"

"Yeah..."  
Noiz sure was. Just kissing Koujaku had nearly made him come earlier to be honest and after the other had begun stroking his member, too, the feeling was just so intense that he thought he had to come on the spot. But then Koujaku had even joined him down there and Noiz had tried to hold back on his orgasm to prolong their moment of intimacy as long as possible. But he was at his limit now. One more strong stroke from Koujaku's hand grabbing at him, one more push from his hard penis against his own, or one more of his arousing moans so close to his ear and he would reach that blinding feeling he yearned for.

"Aah...!"

In the end it was the latter that sent Noiz over the edge and made him come with a bitten back moan all over Koujaku's hand.

Koujaku felt Noiz' warm semen trickle over his fingers as he came and only needed one, two more strokes to reach orgasm as well, while he allowed himself the luxury of inhaling the scent of Noiz' hair right in front of his nose.

They both tried to capture their breath as they came down again and Koujaku couldn't help it and kissed the other's unpierced eyebrow, whispering in a low, deep tone: "Good boy."  
Noiz jerked and made a small sound of surprise before a shaky breath left his mouth and Koujaku felt him ejaculate again like drawing out his orgasm.  
Had he cum again just from Koujaku's words of praise?  
Noiz was red up to his ears, a stark contrast to his normal skin tone and he seemed to shiver a little from embarrassment, too, while he tried to avoid Koujaku's eyes.  
Cute, indeed.  
A part of Koujaku wanted to slap himself inwardly for boarding that train of thought again, but it was crushed the moment he just admitted to himself that it was how he honestly felt, so it couldn't be helped. He wanted to softly kiss Noiz again, while the young man tried to calm down from his orgasm, so he slowly moved his lips down Noiz' forehead and cheekbone to lightly catch his lips with his own, then slightly nibbled on Noiz' lower lip and ended it with a soft peck.

Noiz still looked kind of dazed but a faint, tired smile lit up his features. He didn't know what to think about Koujaku's sudden fondness of him, but he seemed very happy about it.

Koujaku couldn't explain what kind of feelings made him act like that towards Noiz either, maybe it was just the euphoriant hormones circulating in his system after having reached climax just a few seconds ago. He didn't want to think about it for real at the moment to be honest, but it bothered him nonetheless.  
What had his issues about going all the way with Noiz been again?  
Koujaku tried to remember them, but couldn't quite come up with anything at the moment. He was probably still too much consumed with the moment they had shared together.  
Trying to think about it a little harder, Koujaku faintly remembered one argument being that he didn't feel the same thing for Noiz that he felt for Aoba, but honestly, what kind of comparison was that even to begin with? How could he even attempt to compare a long-lasting friendship to a short, hot affair like this?  
Noiz and Aoba in themselves were incomparable to Koujaku, they were way too different from each other, appearance- and character-wise. Then there was the fact that Noiz was a guy - okay that was the one trait he shared with Aoba. The problem with that was just that Koujaku always had thought of his feelings towards Aoba being there even though he was a man, not because he was a man in the first place. As with Noiz... Wasn't it the same, though? Koujaku preferred women, but if he had to choose between gender or getting along on an emotional level he tended to put more weight on the latter than the first. He never would have thought to get along with Noiz in the first place and to be honest, the brat still annoyed him in certain ways, but after having seen all those different sides of him, all these emotions usually hidden by his stoic behaviour, Koujaku suddenly found himself not that much opposed to getting closer to Noiz for some reason. That "deal" of having to sleep with him as payment for information on Ryuuhou still seemed faulty to him, but not so much because of the propose of having to do it with Noiz anymore, but because it would still be some kind of payment, not an act done because he wanted to do it.

Noiz began to get restless in Koujaku's arms, as if he wanted to escape his embrace now, so Koujaku let go of him after he had held onto him in a sluggish manner anyways. Noiz didn't seem to be able to look him in the eye at the moment, a display of bashfulness Koujaku had to wonder about. It seemed to go against Noiz' nature, so why was he acting like this? It couldn't have been due to the things they had done to each other - Noiz seemed quite jaded in that department. Maybe it was just for the fact that he had showed Koujaku something else than just his standard stoicism and was unsure if it had been the right thing to do.  
Whatever it was, Koujaku could literally witness Noiz' features cooling down together with his body as he looked away and then pulled a new handkerchief out of his pants pocket and handed it to Koujaku to wipe his cum-smeared hand with it.

"You can wash your hands if you prefer that.", he said with a low and slightly rough voice and hinted to where the bathroom was with his eyes.

Koujaku nodded at this, but had already taken the handkerchief offered to him, while Noiz had spoken. Looking from his dirtied hand to the very white fabric, he hesitated at first, but then decided not to use it if there were other methods available and headed for the bathroom instead, absentmindedly stuffing the handkerchief into his jeans pockets while he went.

* * *

After he had washed his hands, Koujaku opened the door of the bathroom and overhead a discussion Noiz had with somebody else using his coil.

"What do you mean 'in four days' earliest? I want that information now - meaning ASAP. I'll give ou 48 hours at best for that, or else I could do it faster by myself. Yeah, you heard me right, asshole. So what's the deal with that slow delivery on info here? ...You already got another job? Quit that, I'll pay you double if you work for me instead!"  
There was a longer pause during which Noiz listened to the arguments of his conversational partner with a sour look on his face and then sighed in defeat with his teeth pressed together.  
"So you're saying since this Ryuuhou-guy is a celebrity whose location is hard to pinpoint you'll need to observe him 72 hours at least to give me results I can work with. Okay, but that's the most I'm willing to wait, quit that fucking other assignment you have at the moment. ...Stop complaining! I already gave you a better deal! And stop whining about being trustworthy! The client with more money gets the deal, that's always how we've done things! ...God, fine, triple that sum and now shut the fuck up!"  
He ended the call with an unnerved sigh and turned around to have Koujaku looking at him in surprise.  
"What? Patience isn't my strong point, okay?"

He had apparently needed to defend himself, but Koujaku only blinked at him, then asked him in a slightly uneasy voice: "Just so I know it, how much zeros does 'triple the amount' have?"

Noiz gave him an unfazed look, then scratched his head and answered: "About five? Might be more, I didn't ask what the other deal he had was."

Koujaku almost choked on his spit bevor he shouted at the other in disbelief.  
"Are you crazy?! That's a lot of money! And I'm not in that much of a hurry, you know? There was no need for that!"

Noiz just rose a thin eyebrow at Koujaku's outburst and put his hands in his pockets, looking away from him again.  
"Don't sweat it, old man, it's just money, and in Yen at that, so it's no big deal. Plus, if you take too long with this kind of stuff the target might get wind of it and change their pattern of behaviour or their location, so you kinda have to hurry with stalking missions like that anyway. The sooner we're done with this shit the better, trust me on that one at least."

Koujaku let out a deep sigh and mumbled to himself.  
"Three days then, huh? That's... kind of pretty soon in comparison to the time I spent looking for him until now."

Noiz gave him a smirk over his shoulder.  
"Should have asked a pro on info gathering to work for you sooner then, old man."

"Tche.", Koujaku grinned back, but then his look got darker again.  
"So... I'll meet you in three days, get that info and... I guess you get your payment before I visit Ryuuhou then."

Noiz' facial expression changed to one that seemed to evaluate Koujaku's words, but the longer it took him, the more angry he looked.  
"What do you mean by that? The deal was to get you the info on his whereabouts plus me finding a way for you to meet that guy, so there is no way I'm just entrusting that data to you and see how you run with it. I'm going to come with you."

"What? But-"

"He's a celebrity, old man, the definition of distrust. He has a reputation that he won't tattoo you unless he knows you and that means you gotta be rich to even get in his range of possible customers to pick from or else you won't get a hold of him. In other words: You need me, old man."

Koujaku looked at Noiz like he had just declared the world to be a plate instead of a ball as he gaped at him, but then he laughed.  
"And how exactly can you help me? Are you some kind of rich kid or something?"

"Exactly.", Noiz stated straightfaced as ever, "To define it in your kind of evaluation: sums with five zeros at the end are barely pocket change for me."  
Koujaku wanted to say something in return, but Noiz cut him short again.  
"And no, you don't necessarily have to see how much money one has at his disposal by ones lifestyle for it to exist, so close your mouth again and face it: You need me for this shit to work, so deal with it. But don't worry, it's not like I want to be there when you start exchanging courtesies. I'll get you as close to this asshole as possible and then you can do whatever you want with him, I don't care."

Noiz seemed to be willing to hear a response from Koujaku now, but the other man just pondered on the situation he was in, looking at Noiz now and then as if to estimate the possible outcome of bringing him along when he would meet with Ryuuhou.  
Noiz grew more and more disinterested the longer he had to wait and yawned, but then a thought struck him.  
"Oh, and don't forget my payment afterwards. I prefer getting paid after the work is done."  
He grinned at Koujaku and then slowly headed for the frontdoor to open it as if to show Koujaku his way out of his apartment now.  
"You're free to go now, by the way, though if you prefer to stay over I wouldn't mind either."

Noiz gave Koujaku a suggestive look, but the other man still appeared to be deep in thought and wordlessly headed for the frontdoor, put his shoes back on and stepped over the door sill and out of Noiz' room. Having taken two steps outside, he turned around slightly and murmured "In three days then." in a kind of dispirited way before he headed home.

Noiz didn't know why Koujaku suddenly seemed so put off at the thought of having to bring him along, but he would still stick with him during the whole affair, he was set on that.


	8. Chapter 8

Lying in wait like a predator on the track of his prey was bordering on pissing Noiz off. It was less the situation of having to wait that unnerved him as was the fact that he couldn't do anything to speed things up. He wasn't the one collecting data this time, so he couldn't take part in the mission actively and just sitting around waiting all day long wasn't his style. Data gathering business was something only done on demand, though, so it wasn't like he could just take on some kind of other assignment to pass time instead either. The only thing he was able to do at the moment to busy his mind was preparing for their meeting with Ryuuhou.  
Whatever data he would get from his informant would lead to them meeting either way, so he wanted to make a lasting impression on the man. That included getting the right kind of outfit which Noiz was about to order and would be available to pick up during the next 48 hours. The goal was to get Ryuuhou's attention and then to isolate him enough for Koujaku to clear their differences and since Ryuuhou was a celebrity Noiz expected some bodyguards around him or some kind of security system that needed to be tricked. What he knew so far was that Ryuuhou was a tattooist who charged very high sums and was probably one of those guys who saw themselves as some great artist the world couldn't live without. Well, judging by what he had done with Koujaku, he was very talented. Even if Koujaku resented Ryuuhou for whatever reason, it was undeniable that he had done some magnificent work on his skin, especially when it came to the peonies blooming on Koujaku's back. Noiz was still amazed by how lifelike they had looked when he had seen them, as if they would have a life of their own.

Noiz shook his head.

This was nonsense. It was just ink applied on skin and no real flowers that actually could bloom. But back to the topic of their creator; Ryuuhou was an artist and a rich guy, which enabled him to choose whomever he felt like as his customer. It wasn't like Noiz had any desire for a tattoo, but if the wanted to isolate Ryuuhou, he had to make him take an interest in him. Alternatively, he could just shove Koujaku in his face and see how things would go down too, but the risk of being interrupted was too high.

Thinking about it now, Noiz wondered what exactly Koujaku would do to Ryuuhou as soon as he had him in his grasp. The only thing he knew was that Koujaku blamed him for his past being shitty, but he didn't know when he had met Ryuuhou - before or after the bloody incident with his family. Remembering that, the worst thing that might happen to Ryuuhou was probably Koujaku killing him, too. This would serve as a good reason as to why the man had been reluctant to take Noiz with him when he would meet up with Ryuuhou earlier.

Noiz furrowed his brows.

He had no desire to witness a murder, but less because of that Ryuuhou-guy dying and more because of Koujaku doing it. He hadn't come to terms with himself concerning murdering his family members over a decade ago, so what good would it do to him to add another corpse to the mountain he already stood on?

Noiz bit his lower lip.

Normally he wouldn't give a shit about something like this. Human relations were always so troublesome, messy and annoying to no end, so Noiz would rather stay away from them. Plus, it was hard to calculate what kind of outcome a meeting with two people could have if there were feelings like hatred involved, so a prediction of what kind of precautions to take to prevent yourself from danger was hard to make. Worst case scenario: they end up with a corpse in a place where hiding a murder was pretty much impossible.

Was he really just thinking about how to get rid of a corpse now to save Koujaku from getting thrown into prison?

Since when had he become this stupid?

Shouldn't he rather be thinking about a way to prevent Koujaku from murdering anyone in the first place?

But he really couldn't bring himself to give a fuck about that Ryuuhou guy, who had made Koujaku suffer in his past.

Ah, but no matter what kind of an asshole he was, if he was dead then Koujaku would get in trouble for it.

Noiz sighed.

If worst comes to worst he could only try to talk Koujaku out of killing Ryuuhou. And if he didn't succeed, which was highly possible judging by Koujaku's temper, he probably had to make something up on the fly then.

Great, just great.

Human relationships.

He disliked them for a reason.

* * *

Meanwhile Koujaku polished his sword in his room while being deeply in thought.

So the day he would be able to deliver some punishment to Ryuuhou would arrive shortly. He nearly abandoned all hope for that to happen one day already. Ryuuhou hadn't been the sole reason for him wanting to take vengeance on his family, or rather on his father and his hate-filled wife who had harassed his mother day and night. But applying the tattoo all over his body against his will and relishing in his pain day in and day out for months to go had flipped Koujaku's switch one day. The day the tattoo had finally been finished, his back had burned until nothing but madness was left inside of him and before he had even managed to fully grasp the situation, he had already stood there, ankle-deep in the blood of his clansmen. He had been completely out of his mind with no self-control left back then. There was nobody his hatred had been directed towards specifically that day - he had just raged on like a storm with no consciousness left to direct who he slayed with his blade and who to spare, whether it be the people who had been kind to him or not. Even his dear mother had been among the victims.

Koujaku cursed to himself at the memory of her last moments in his arms, how weak she had been and how she simply had let go of her life in the end.

"Mother... I'm... so sorry..."

He wiped at his wet eyes.

No, he wouldn't cry. Not now, not until he would be able to take the last bit of his vengeance with precision this time. He would never forgive Ryuuhou for what he had done to him, ever. He had to end him, there was no way around it or he would never be able to find any peace of mind. Koujaku just wished he wouldn't have to involve Noiz in all of this, though. The brat was helpful this time, sure, but he would prefer not to have to slay a man in front of his eyes if he could. Maybe there was a way to get around that kind of situation. He would have to make something up as time would come it seemed.

For the next 72 hours Koujaku tried to spend his days in his usual routine: opening up shop in the streets of Midorijima to cut hair and entertain his clients, keeping his place in order and taking strolls through Benishigure's territory. But his thoughts didn't stop circulating around what was about to happen.

* * *

After three days had finally passed since the last time they had met, Noiz called Koujaku over to his place to finally present him the results of his acquaintance's data research.

Koujaku was surprised to see that Noiz had dressed in clothes that were not as flashy as his usual getup when he had greeted him at the front door. Now he wore a dark navy blue man's shirt together with a longer than usual, neon green tie, without anything attached to it. The shirt was topped by a black haori jacket this time, followed by a pair of his standard, black, three-quarter-length pants with neon green cuffs, but with navy blue leggings matching his shirt's colour underneath them this time. The ankle boots were the same as usual, black with neon green highlights and white shoelaces, the sole difference being that they were strung accurately this time. The only accessories going with the outfit were Noiz' green, studded bracelets and three of his bunny cubes tugged below each other; dangling from his left hip below the hem of his shirt. They made way less of an impact that way and looked more like a fashion accessory than like actual Allmates. Not even his hands were bandaged anymore - Koujaku could see various smaller and bigger scars running across his skin, but thankfully most of them weren't that visible at first glance. But the most mind-blowing thing about Noiz' current appearance for Koujaku was the fact that he had taken out most of his piercings aside from the anthracite coloured lobe piercings in both his ears. Maybe it was the miniscule amount of metal in his face that was giving him a more mature look or something, because Noiz almost seemed like a totally different person to Koujaku.

"What is it? Stop gaping and come in so we can talk this over." Noiz told him flatly after Koujaku hadn't moved an inch from the entry area.

Koujaku shook his head and gave off an affirmative sound as he bent down to take off his shoes so he was able to enter Noiz' apartment properly.

"Here, these are for you." Noiz told him and held out a bundle of clothes in front of Koujaku as he entered Noiz' living room.

After inspecting the clothes curiously, Koujaku looked back to Noiz again.

"What are these for?"

Noiz halfway rolled his eyes and answered him with a sigh.

"It's a disguise of course. Do you honestly believe we can just waltz in on this guy's place looking like we usually would? He's a celebrity and we want to attract his attention so he'll invite us to his tattoo studio or some other secluded room. Or do you prefer to chat him up amidst a crowd to clear the differences between the two of you instead?"

Koujaku scowled and mumbled an "Of course not." under his breath before he put the clothes he had received from Noiz on his bed and started to undress.

Noiz watched Koujaku out of the corner of his eye while he got out of his red kimono and the other stuff he wore to put on his new clothes and tried to not give his mostly naked skin too much attention when he began explaining further.

"Just so you know, the info I have on Ryuuhou only states his habits and times when he'll be where if his time table is the same as usual. Meaning that if he doesn't have any appointments that keep him from appearing, he will be where we expect him to. For now he's most likely to spend a considerable amount of time at a certain night club in the Flame Willow district of Platinum Jail. They opened the place for everybody, but certain parts of the districts are pretty much high society only, because they are way too expensive for low-wage earners to set foot in. That night club belongs into that category, but my informant got us a membership card, so we'll be able to access the place just fine. According to the floor plans I could dig up for the thing and judging by the amount of time he spends there it's possible that his studio might be situated in there as well. The question is just which of the rooms he's using, but I'm guessing something on the upper floors. If nothing else the club should at least provide a room he can use to meet up with his customers or something."

Noiz turned around and saw that Koujaku had already put on most of the clothes he had handed to him and was merely struggling with the outfit to make it look proper. Now he wore a black standard kimono that was tucked into a black and white striped hakama. The outfit was completed by a pair of white toe socks and wood-coloured sandals. He kind of looked like he was from another century, but it wasn't an unusual look in the Flame Willow district of Platinum Jail, where they were about to head, and much less unusual for a man like Koujaku who wore a kimono on a daily basis anyway. He still seemed unhappy with the choice of clothes, though, as he grumbled and turned his head around looking at himself in annoyance.

"So, what exactly am I supposed to be, Mr. rich kid?" Koujaku asked grumpily and Noiz had to snort about the way he had addressed him.

"Well, if I'm the 'rich kid', then you are my bodyguard of course."

"What?"

Koujaku thought Noiz was joking, but the young man only handed him a dark navy-blue scarf now.

"Wrap this around your neck and face in a way that only your eyes are visible so that Ryuuhou-guy won't recognize you immediately. I'm going to pose as a possible customer of his, since we need to lure him away from the crowd, so until then no speaking in front of him either, understood? You might ruin everything with your hot-headed temper otherwise."

"Excuse me?! I'm as calm as can be!", Koujaku was infuriated that Noiz was even forbidding him to speak on top of all that and had insulted his own intelligence just now, but Noiz gave him a dead-serious glare and Koujaku swallowed his words and tried to calm down again. The brat was doing all of this for him after all, he should be glad Noiz was willing to go that far. Plus, he seemed to have thought this thing through very well, too. Glancing at the clothes he had taken off, his view fell upon his sword and he grabbed it to put the strap of its scabbard around his back as usual, but paused before doing so.

"I can put this on, right?"

Noiz gave him a complicated look, but then schooled his features into a deadpan expression and nodded.

"You're supposed to be my bodyguard for the night, so a weapon is fine."

He hoped he wouldn't regret his decision later and absentmindedly checked the hidden pockets of his haori for his knuckle rings.  
He gave Koujaku a last, checking glance-with his neck and face covered up to his nose and only his fierce, red eye poking out from it- Koujaku gave off a pretty intimidating look; good. He turned around on his heels and headed for the front door.

"Let's go then. We'll have to take a bit of a walk to reach the gates of Platinum Jail."

Koujaku just nodded at him and then followed suit.

* * *

The "gates" Noiz had spoken of really were just part of the walls that had once crumbled after Oval Tower had collapsed over a year ago, but everyone knew what you were talking about when you called it "the gates of Platinum Jail". You simply were on a new territory after passing that huge hole in the walls that had once separated the inner part of Platinum Jail from the Old Resident District. There wasn't a real checkpoint anymore, since it had been made free to access for all, but you still had to decide for a district to spend your time on and to activate the door leading to that district with your coil. If you were unsure where to go some guy in a panda costume would show up and explain things to you, but Noiz and Koujaku knew where they were headed and ignored the guy. When he tried to get close to them reguardless, Koujaku flashed him a dark glare and grabbed behind himself to reach for the hilt of his sword warningly while Noiz logged the two of them in and the panda backed off with a defensive gesture.

The artificial sky upholding a constant nighttime setting before the fall of Oval Tower was gone, but since it was way after sunset by the time Koujaku and Noiz had arrived at Platinum Jail's Flame Willow district. The reddish lights that the streets and buildings emitted provided the place with a warm yet kind of dangerous atmosphere similar to the one one would have come across roughly a year ago. The entertainment district with its various bars and clubs had a typical Japanese design by default and people in kimonos or mixed attire blended in with the crowd just fine. Koujaku tried to keep an eye out for Ryuuhou, even though Noiz had told him that he was most likely inside of the night club he frequented right now, so it would be useless to look for him outside of it. They headed there straight away. It wasn't hard to find the large, square building illuminated by red lights that gave the place a kind of ominous touch. Noiz went over to the bouncer at the entry, showed him a black membership card with a butterfly design on it and was let in together with Koujaku; no questions asked. They were greeted by blaring music and aggressive lights with the people dancing on the floor acting like in a trance and some of them making out in various corners of the room without caring much for whoever was looking at them.

After the fall of Oval Tower most of Toue's mind-manipulating techniques and research had been unveiled by the press who had acted like vultures after having been restricted by Toue for so long along with other institutions. Therefore, Platinum Jail had underwent a fundamental make-over when it came to anything that might have been used to control anyone's mind; light and sound included. That way the night club's lights and choice of music had been changed, but the people visiting this place had not. If they wanted to get high over here: they did. There was enough drugs circling around Platinum Jail - they were just made a luxury item for the higher earners.

Noiz tried to ignore the deafening music and overly bright lights flashing around the room and stopped in his tracks now and then to look around for Ryuuhou. He had been provided with a photo taken of his face and the description of the guy always wearing a blue kimono with a dragon pattern on it and some pretty showy skull accessories around his body, so even if the lights might trick Noiz' eyes with different colours, he would probably be able to find the guy he was looking for due to his flamboyance alone. There was no trace of him right now whatsoever. Even Koujaku couldn't seem to find the slightest hint of his presence, aside from a few girls with tattoos that showed Ryuuhou's style. Interrogating them over Ryuuhou's whereabouts brought nothing new to light aside from the fact that they said he was usually around here at this time.

Noiz saw that Koujaku grew more and more agitated the longer they searched for him and the shrill lights and music surrounding them didn't help to calm his nerves. So Noiz looked for a quite corner to take a break and found that the club had an upper deck from where they could probably overlook the whole dance floor just fine, too, so he directed Koujaku over there. They arrived at a square room with windows out towards the dance floor on one side and walls on the other with a few halfmoon-shaped sofas surrounding small tables in the middle. Noiz grabbed Koujaku's sleeve and forced him down to take a seat close to the windows with him.

Koujaku yanked down the scarf partially covering his face and grumbled.  
"This darn snake! Now we're here and still cannot find a hint of his presence!"

"Keep your voice down, you moron, you're just attracting unnecessary attention." Noiz growled back with a stern look on his face - replacing his mostly indifferent features.

Koujaku snarled and crossed his arms in front of his chest, appearing to be sulking. Noiz sighed in annoyance as he let is eyes wander over the dancing crowd outside of the window. His voice sounded unconcerned, but his words showed that he cared for him when he spoke again.

"Keep calm, we'll find him. And even if we shouldn't succeed today, it doesn't mean that we failed or anything. We can still try tomorrow or the day after that. Anytime is fine as long as we know that he's still around here somewhere."

That didn't mean that Koujaku was fine with being this close to Ryuuhou and not being able to get back at him as immediately as he had envisioned it, though. His eyes wandered over to Noiz who appeared to be as unmoved by the whole atmosphere surrounding this place as if it was his own home. Koujaku wondered if he should bring up the matter of Noiz' "payment" again, since he had kept his part of the deal so far and he would prefer to keep the brat out of his problems after all, especially if they were headed for a very bloody outcome. He even had considered using the opportunity of being alone with Noiz in a bedroom somewhere in case they would call it a day and then get his hands on Noiz' membership card for the club and deal with the rest of the act all by himself. But as soon as he opened up his mouth to speak, a man behind them interrupted him.

"Oh my, so the best seats are taken already I see."

Koujaku froze in his seat. He knew that faked, friendly voice that had reached his ears right now far too well. It belonged to that sickeningly slick person in a blue kimono with a dragon pattern on it right behind them. Koujaku swallowed hard and drew the scarf back up to the bridge of his nose before turning around and facing a man grinning like a fox with a deadly look in his eyes.

Noiz had spotted him, too, and seemed to match the description and picture he had gotten of Ryuuhou to the man standing right in front of him in his head. Then he got up and put on a smile that was as fake as Ryuuhou's but less venomous, even friendly for Noiz' standards, and took a step towards the other man.

"Pardon us, then, we hadn't known there were reservations on the seating."  
He motioned for Koujaku to get up himself and he followed Noiz unspoken order without letting Ryuuhou out of his sight for a second.

"Oh no, there is no such thing, don't mind me." Ryuuhou waved his hand in a dismissing gesture and appeared to be in a good mood as he continued.

"I just thought I could enjoy the look for a while on my own from my favoured position, but it's fine either way."

He came closer and was apparently headed for the free sofa right behind the one they had occupied just a few seconds ago, but Noiz intercepted him and began a new dialogue.

"I'm sorry to impose on you, but could it be that you're the famous tattoo artist Ryuuhou by any chance?"

Ryuuhou's brows twitched at the mentioning of his name and he appeared to be flattered by Noiz' words as he answered him with a mocking laugh, a sleeve lifted to his face to hide his amusement.

"Oh my, I'm busted then?"

Noiz tried to appear as excited as he could, which was recognizable mostly by his voice instead of by his face that had trouble producing emotions of such sort, although he manged to make his eyes sparkle slightly when he heard Ryuuhou's answer.

"Oh, really? What an honor for me then! I just arrived here from overseas and I'm a great fan of your work."

Ryuuhou appeared to be interested enough into what Noiz had to say to give him his full attention now and kept talking with his honeyed tongue.

"From overseas? Don't tell me I'm known even over there."

"Of course you are.", Noiz continued to stroke his ego in an attempt to keep him interested. Artists of his caliber were known for their narcism after all, so whatever compliments he had at his disposal he was willing to use if it would lead him to his goal of secluding Ryuuhou from the rest of the people around here. "I must say I'm a great fan of Japan and it's culture and I fell in love with the method of tattooing you use. 'Tebori' was the right term for it, right? It's impossible to look that up without coming by your name. I've only seen pictures but it's so amazing what you do to the skin to make it into a living work of art and by hand at that. Fascinating."

Koujaku noticed just now that Noiz was speaking with a certain kind of accent this whole time. His wording was a little rough, too, something akin to a tourist's wording maybe - a person able to speak a language fluently, but with enough of an accent to distinguish him from a native speaker easily. But whatever charade Noiz was pulling right now, how long exactly was he intending to flatter that snake like a star-struck fanboy? Koujaku was nearly at his limit in hiding his anger and his piercing eyes continued to stare holes in Ryuuhou's figure while his left shoulder began to prickle with a hot sensation.

"Oh I am so sorry. I believe it is rude of me not to introduce myself. My name is Wilhelm and I'm working for an IT company in Germany. Would you like to exchange business cards with me by any chance?"

Noiz reached around and was apparently searching for a card case in his pants pockets only to produce an actual business card from it and handed it to Ryuuhou with both hands and a slight bow. Ryuuhou took the card and examined it politely before reaching around his waist to open the small bag he carried around and took out a card of himself to exchange it for Noiz', who imitated Ryuuhou's interest in what was written on the card before placing it in his card case and let it vanish back into his pants pockets.

"You said you are a fan of mine? What kind of artwork is your favorite then?"

The tattooist seemed awfully interested in Noiz now if Koujaku interpreted the greedy look in his eyes correctly - though the guy was probably more interested in how a foreigner would scream under his needle were he to tattoo him instead of the money he would receive for his services-if Koujaku's deduction was correct.  
That business card must be fake for sure, too, Noiz probably only had made it to underline his place of origin and the fact that there was money behind his name. "Wilhelm", huh? What kind of a made-up name was that even? Sounded kinda lame to Koujaku's ears, and hard to pronounce at that, too. Either way, this whole farce began to annoy Koujaku to no end. He felt the strong need to strike down Ryuuhou then and there when the man suddenly put one arm around Noiz' shoulder, patting him during their conversation of exchanged pleasantries - though Koujaku could have sworn to have seen something metallic glisten in the dark for a split second there as well. But as hard as he tried to look now, he couldn't see anything in Ryuuhou's hand, even as he drew closer to the two of them.

"Oh my, who is that companion of yours?"  
Ryuuhou acted as if he had noticed Koujaku just now and took his hand off of Noiz' shoulder as he turned around halfway.

Noiz gave Koujaku a "keep it down"-kind of look, when he saw the open hatred in his eyes, before he answered Ryuuhou as de-emphasizing as possible.  
"Oh, don't mind him, he's just my bodyguard for the time being. You never know what kind of danger is lurking around the corner, even at the most exclusive places."

Ryuuhou scrutinized Koujaku and ended it with a disdainful look on his face.  
"I see. You are right of course. You never now what danger might lie ahead."  
He grinned at Koujaku's fierce gaze and turned his attention back to Noiz.  
"Say, would you like to have a look at my studio by any chance? It's always refreshing to have another person's opinion on my designs."

"I'd love to."  
This was almost too easy. But Ryuuhou was a man with a very good act put on, Noiz was sure of it, so he tried to stay alarmed while he let him guide them to his studio on the upper floor of the night club. Noiz glanced over his shoulder while walking and saw Koujaku look daggers at Ryuuhou while following him. He hoped that Koujaku wouldn't try to make a move on him before they reached their destination.

* * *

The upper floors of the night club appeared to be dark and deserted. There wasn't even any security staff outside of Ryuuhou's room, just the usual panel to enter a security code in and to scan your coil with. Noiz had a hard time believing that a man of Ryuuhou's caliber would leave his work room unsupervised just like that. Well, maybe there were security cameras inside of the room - or not. Noiz couldn't spot anything when they entered Ryuuhou's studio: a Japanese style room with a wall full of the tattooist's designs. There was also a room divider in front of a futon that seemed to be covered with a material supposedly for sterilizing purposes or to keep the mess to a minimum should one occur during tattooing.  
Still, it was odd to Noiz that the level of security in here seemed so low and that a man like Ryuuhou was just this careless. Or was it that he simply didn't feel the need to have that kind of safety?

Oh shit!  
A trap. This must be a trap!  
Noiz looked back at the door they had come in through only to see the red light for "locked" glowing in front of his eyes.

"Oh my, oh my, what is this?", Ryuuhou laughed when he looked back at Noiz before purring with his sickeningly sweet voice, "Weren't you just eager to have a look at my work? Now it's this way, not over there by the door."

Noiz gave Koujaku a meaningful look and a second later an ear-splitting roar burst out of Koujaku's mouth, who had ripped the scarf off his face and unsheathed his sword in a flash.

"RYUUHOU! Now you'll pay for what you've done, you bastard!"

Noiz couldn't feel the cold sweat that had broken out on his skin, but he was still agitated by the development of events. Technically, this was the situation they had hoped for: being alone with Ryuuhou to give Koujaku a chance to take revenge on him. But the feeling that something was definitely wrong about this whole setup wouldn't let up. Okay, he had locked the door, no big deal with Noiz' hacking skills. But even though Koujaku held a sword in front of him now, Ryuuhou didn't appear to be frightened or even disturbed in the least, if anything he gave off the air of being very amused. There was definitely something wrong here, this guy simply felt too safe.

"And who might you be, Mr. bodyguard, that you feel the need to wave a sword around in front of me now?"

"Don't play dumb, you motherfucker!", Koujaku brushed the bangs covering the right side of his face away with his free hand and showed Ryuuhou the tribal tattoo clinging to his skin. "Don't you dare say you forgot how you tormented me!"

Ryuuhou laughed openly and his thin eyes glistened like a fox behind his eyelids.  
"Don't worry, I haven't forgotten about you in the least. I was just joking. Your temper hasn't gotten any better, I see. Kou-ja-ku."

"Raaah!"  
The way he caressed the syllables of Koujaku's name made him furious and a burning, hot sensation clawing at his back began to cloud his mind more and more while the grip around the hilt of his sword hardened to an almost painful degree.

"Shit!"  
Noiz cursed under his breath. The situation threatened to get out of control. Noiz doubted that any words to reconsider killing Ryuuhou would reach Koujaku at this point. Well, he had expected this, but what would come after that? Searching the room with his eyes to find something useful, Noiz spotted an oil lamp flickering in the corner of the room. Maybe he could use that later on. For now it seemed more sensible to unlock the door just in case they had to flee the scene afterwards. So, Noiz made a waving gesture to pull up his virtual screens and keyboard to hack the darn thing, but then a loud clapping sound echoed through the room and Noiz' whole body froze on the spot before he could even start typing.

"And what do you think you're doing, Mr. fan of mine? Don't you want to see my most magnificent piece of art with your own eyes? Then look over here. It cannot take too long until it will bloom to its full glory I believe."

He gave Koujaku a taxing look and added: "But maybe it needs a little more fuel first."

"What?", Noiz had no clue what was wrong with his body right now since he couldn't move, but then Ryuuhou clapped his hands again and he felt himself walking towards him until he came to a halt right next to the tattooist.

Koujaku watched the scene with irritation.  
"What... What are you doing?"  
Then he looked to Ryuuhou, who grinned triumphantly.  
"What are you making him do?!"

Ryuuhou chuckled and lightly directed Noiz' head in a way that the young man looked aside, his neck clearly visible now, and then caressed a certain red spot that had formed on his skin; reminding the onlooker of a bug bite.

"Oh, nothing spectacular as of yet, I just pricked him a little with one of my needles earlier and let him do what I want now. Maybe I should use him as a shield against this mad guy with a sword right in front of me?"

"You little...!", Koujaku snarled and grabbed the hilt of his sword with both hands, already shaking with anger and a terrible heat began to form inside of him and seeped out of every pore on his skin, while his heart began to hammer loudly in his own ears.

Ryuuhou's ice cold fingers caressed Noiz' neck and made goosebumps appear all over his skin. Noiz couldn't feel his body's reactions, but he still felt sick by the thought of this nauseating guy touching him this way. Aside from that he grew more and more worried for Koujaku's state of mind, which had reached a peak of anger Noiz had never witnessed from the man before. He swallowed hard with a too dry throat when he calculated the possible outcome.  
Then he blinked in surprise.  
Was he... afraid? Afraid enough to die? Was that fear of death?  
An image of a sadly smiling Koujaku lifting a sword over his head from a far away dream flashed in front of Noiz' mind.

No, this wouldn't happen! Koujaku's hate was clearly directed towards this Ryuuhou-guy only, wasn't it? And even if his dimly glowing eyes were soaked in anger right now, there was still sense in those eyes left, he wasn't insane, not this time - not yet.  
Noiz growled at Ryuuhou, who stood behind him and enjoyed Koujaku's display of being torn between wanting to cut him down by all means, yet being afraid to hurt Noiz if he dared to move.

"Hey, leave me out of your little dispute, you creep!", he spat at Ryuuhou with disgust, but only earned himself another amused laugh from the tattooist standing right behind him.

"And shorten my moment of glee? Don't be so impatient. Or do you want to taste my needle again so soon?"  
Ryuuhou pulled the haori jacket off Noiz' shoulders with a swift tug and then diligently unbuttoned his shirt from behind, button by button, taking his time and making eye contact with Koujaku all the while to aggravate him further. He didn't know whether Noiz was a friend of Koujaku's or even more than that, but he didn't care as long as it angered Koujaku that Ryuuhou had the young man in his grasp. And judging by the curses and growls headed his way from Koujaku's direction, his plan to make Koujaku loose his temper worked just fine so far. Then he pulled his gloves off with his teeth, shoved his bare hands below the hem of the open hanging piece of fabric that was Noiz shirt and felt his back up, uttering a soft moan as he did so.  
"Your skin feels great under my touch I must say. Less scars to feel than I expected from a guy with no sense of pain. But even if you were scarred from head to toe I would make an exception for you since you're such a special case."

Noiz hitched his breath.  
"How do you-"

"How do I know that you can't feel pain?", Ryuuhou asked Noiz' question himself, then saw Koujaku try to make a move on them from the corner of his eyes and swiftly pulled out a hand full of overly long needles to hold warningly in front of him, threateningly positioning them right below Noiz' throat.  
"Ah-ah-ah, no moving, Koujaku, grown-ups are talking right now. Or do you want me to accidently sink my needles into a part of his body that's not supposed to be stung yet? I'd hate to ruin my workspace but I might make an exception."

"Tche!"  
Koujaku spat out and growled at him, trying to find a moment of carelessness when he could sweep in, pull Noiz out of the danger zone and finally be able to direct his attacks at Ryuuhou only. The growing heat and his vision turning red behind his eyes made it hard to concentrate on that plan, though. Thinking grew harder and harder the longer he had to force himself to contain his anger, too.

Ryuuhou grinned triumphantly and brought his attention back to Noiz, whispering close to his ear with new-found amusement in his voice.  
"I'll gladly tell you how I know about your little secret. You tried to research me, haven't you, Mr. hacker? Or rather that little friend of yours did. Now I'm sure you know that exchange of information works in both ways."

Noiz' eyes widened. Had his informant double-crossed him?  
"That bastard...!", he said with a light snarl, but Ryuuhou tsked at him.

"Don't be hard on him, he only followed my orders because I got him under my control while he was sneaking around trying to collect data on me. He was too careless for his own good, so I pricked him with my needle like I pricked you, too."  
Ryuuhou underlined his story by rubbing the tip of his finger over the reddened spot on Noiz' neck, using just enough force to make Noiz notice his touch and glare at him in response.

"Now you have experienced first hand that my needle is able to control people's minds. That way I got some pretty interesting details about you while I had him use all the networks he could think of to gather information about the man on my tracks. I must say I had to work him pretty hard with how many aliases you used since you arrived at Midorijima, but then he eventually dug up a file I wouldn't have imagined to exist about you. You were actually one of the little experiments of my late acquaintance Toue."

Noiz gasped.  
What had he just said? Him being one of this guy's experiments?  
"Ridiculous...!", he blurted out, though his voice was barely audible, since his mind had already begun to consider the information he had gotten to be true, as impossible as it sounded to him.

"Aww, how can you say that, isn't it quite obvious with your current condition?"  
Ryuuhou chuckled and pressed the tips of his needles against Noiz' throat in a way that just barely penetrated his skin, but enough to hurt a normal person. It wasn't enough to draw blood, though, and it wasn't enough stimulation for Noiz to feel.  
"Earlier when I used my mind-controlling sting at you, you probably didn't even feel the sensation of a bug's bite like most people would. And even now that I pricked you with my needles in a way that would hurt any normal human being, you failed to notice a thing, since you cannot feel pain at all. It's listed in Toue's little lab report: 'Subject is made to believe not to be able to feel pain of any kind. Longevity of treatment's success is to be evaluated after ten years have progressed.' They even included some nice insight of what they have done to make you block out the pain, but it all comes down to some kind of advanced hypnosis if I understood it correctly."

Hypnosis?  
But didn't something like that mean that it could be undone?  
Noiz' eyes widened at the prospect, but then the gleam of hope that had glistened in his eyes for a moment vanished the next second as he spoke.  
"I don't remember ever having been a test subject of Toue's, though. I've never even been to Oval Tower before."

Ryuuhou shook his head and gave his voice a lecturing undertone as he elaborated.  
"As if Toue was so careless, of course they wiped your mind afterwards. Toue was obsessed with finding various ways to control human beings and some of them might even be used for some kind of military purposes later on. The problem with that is that you can't really find willing human test subjects since it involves the possibility of crushing their minds. Plus, the best recipients of mind control are the ones with low inner borders like children. Hard to come by, even if you already buy every child up for adoption you could find, or steal the homeless ones from the streets. But according to some very interesting backup files from Oval Tower's old network your little friend found on the matter, your parents once were considered sponsors for Platinum Jail while it was still built and therefore invited over there. They brought you with them and you were taken in for some 'health check' or the like to show the facility in good light. They edited your brain though, or rather your mind. It was a long-term experiment due in fifteen years earliest after starting it. It's kind of ironic that Platinum Jail broke down before they could rake in their results."

Noiz ran the probability of the things Ryuuhou had told him to be true through his mind.  
Hypnosis was hard to proof and if he was made not to remember something, he most likely wouldn't. Given what he knew about Toue's plans to rule over all of Midorijima by mind-controlling people, a scenario like Ryuuhou's was plausible and the tattooist didn't seem to be the kind of man to make up that sort of story just for his own amusement. Speaking of which why was he even so amused about all of this in the first place? Why had he been so interested in Noiz' background beyond the fact that he was a hacker? There must have been something he hadn't told him yet. Plus, now that he sorted the information in his mind again, something didn't make sense.  
"Your data is contradictory.", he announced as cooly as he could and gave Ryuuhou a cold stare, "You stated the experiment to be due in fifteen years earliest, but before that you said that the experiment's success was supposed to be evaluated ten years after it began. I didn't visit Toue during that time, though."

Ryuuhou rose his eyebrows and then gave him a disappointed look.  
"Has your IQ gone down since you arrived at my place? Aren't you here? And haven't you come back to this island from overseas after ten years had passed? I found the entry of your personal data being registered here, you know? The date fits perfectly."

Noiz' eyes widened, but then thinned as he retorted: "I only came here that time because I had heard about Rhyme and Platinum Jail and I wanted to know more about it, that's all."

"Isn't that a bit far-fetched for a reason to fly over here from another continent?", Ryuuhou sighed in annoyance, "And don't you think that if they can wipe your memories once they can do it again? You're starting to bore me, Mr. hacker. And I deem my time too valuable to be bored"  
Ryuuhou finally took the needles away from Noiz' neck and then stared at him like a hungry beast eager to feed on its prey now.  
"So let's come to something way more interesting now. Did you know that the pain-blocking hypnosis can be triggered or vanish by uttering some simple words? It was used in the early stages of the erasure to make sure the sensation can be blocked out on command and in case somebody became suspicious and they had to abort their experiment and erase their traces."  
Ryuuhou let his hands glide over Noiz' half-naked body possessively now, nearly clawing at his skin and making Noiz break out in a new wave of cold sweat while he watched him out of the corner of his eye.  
"I would have no interest in a mere hacker after I found out what he was after under normal circumstances. I might let him vanish from sight by the help of some trustworthy resources of mine if I deem him a danger to my business, but you are an exception. You cannot feel pain and how bland would it be to use my precious needle on a body like that." Ryuuhou's eyes lit up with frightening eagerness as he continued. "But then imagine a body that was never introduced to pain before in contrast to that! How wonderful must it be to be the one to inflict pain upon skin that's practically virginal to the sensation? How intense must it be to feel the pain and how great must your cries of agony sound to my ears? I was instantly set on having you in my grasp, I couldn't help myself from wanting to get my hands on your skin. And you just came here so unaware but thinking you got me instead. It's so amusing that it could last me for days."

So that's why it had been so easy to get close to him then, Noiz thought.  
Ryuuhou laughed like the madman that he was and provoked an angry shout from Koujaku, who had watched the scene unfold in front of his eyes with gritted teeth, always waiting for an opening to strike at Ryuuhou without harming Noiz. But his patience had run out almost completely now, as had his mind which had become more and more clouded by the anger consuming it.

"Oh my, maybe we should start to worry about that over there." Ryuuhou commented on Koujaku's rising level of loosing his self-control before directing his attention back to Noiz and speaking close to his ear. "But don't worry, I will teach you pain just fine. I intend to give you as much pain as you desire or even more. As soon as we can make some alone time for each other, without the troublemaker over there."  
He looked back at Koujaku, who appeared to almost foam at the mouth now.

"I don't believe you."  
Noiz growled in Ryuuhou's direction without sparing Koujaku a simple glance.

"Oh my, what could you mean by that?", Ryuuhou asked him with a grin like a cat that had already caught the canary and was sure that nothing could go wrong anymore.

"That you can teach me pain, of course. I can't feel anything and I doubt your little story - beginning to end. There is no way all of those years of feeling different from others could be erased by some simple words, it's just illogical. It's way more plausible for me to have some kind of disease that affects the forwarding of information between my nerves or something."  
Noiz tried to sound as provoking as possible. Even if he believed what he had just said on one hand, he actually deeply hoped that Ryuuhou's story would hold to be true and that a few words, a simple trigger, would undo his condition. But he was sure that Koujaku would kill Ryuuhou as soon as he had the chance and that there would be no time for Ryuuhou to torment him afterwards since the sick guy would lie dead on the floor to by Koujaku's feet by then. He had to hear it now, if not now than he might never get the chance to get rid of the hypnosis, if there truly was one. He was pretty sure if the information his partner was supposed to have dug up existed for real, they were either sealed away more tightly then before by now or even erased, with the latter being more likely.  
He smiled to underline his disbelief and gave his voice a pitying tone.  
"You'll never hear me scream, you sick bastard. Your beloved needles will be nothing more then a breath of air on my skin, something I can't feel and never will."

If there was one thing Ryuuhou hated - aside from a design not coming out the way on skin like he had envisioned it in his head - it was being patronized and told what would be possible for him to do and what he wouldn't be able to achieve. He had wanted to savour the moment when Noiz would experience pain the first time in his life by driving his needle into his skin. But maybe he should give him a foretaste of what would await him later on to set the bar of agony even higher; so he brought his mouth closer to Noiz' ear...

* * *

_[A/N: __This chapter has kindly been proofread by Kingyama.__]_


	9. Chapter 9

Ryuuhou whispered a few words in Noiz' ear before grabbing for his needles to give his new toy a sample of the kind of pain he would have to expect when the young man suddenly began to groan without him having done anything yet, making the tattooist blink in confusion.

"Hsss...! Ah! Ha...!"  
Noiz' face twisted due to a sharp, stinging sensation coming from his legs, or rather from the region between his ankles and his knees to be more accurate.  
He had taken care of the cuts in his legs that Koujaku had bandaged and partly stitched up for him roughly a week ago. But aside from renewing the bandages from time to time and checking for infections he hadn't bothered to be easy on himself that much, meaning he had kept running around without that much of a care, delaying the healing process by constantly moving the hurt parts of his body and straining his leg muscles in various standing and sitting positions even though he should have refrained from doing so. But without pain to remind him of his wounds his mind forgot the fact that he was hurt all too fast as soon as he wasn't looking at his bandages.  
Noiz couldn't stop himself from groaning in pain now, but at the same time a weird kind of laugh echoed from his throat. Hiccups of laughter mixed with tears of pain and joy at the realization of finally feeling pain - feeling his body - properly.

Koujaku let out an angry growl towards Ryuuhou, apparently haven taken Noiz' reactions for the tattooist hurting Noiz, even if he should normally think it impossible for Noiz to recognize pain as such, but logic failed him right now and the fact that he hadn't heard or caught on to what the two of them had been talking about for most of the time didn't help in making him understand what was going on either. All that he knew was that Noiz reacted strangely and that Ryuuhou was most likely the reason for it. Coming to this conclusion alone took all the strength he had left to think, though, while he was more and more consumed by hatred towards this man that had tormented him years ago and a terrible heat fanned by rage was all he could feel right now, making him sweat and breath heavily.

Ryuuhou on the other end, who still stood right behind Noiz, was aghast that he had been betrayed of being the first person to harm his precious virgin to pain and it dawned on him that Noiz had just used him to get what he had wanted. This was topping it. First he had offended him, then he had used him and now he had taken away that one moment he had dreamed about since he had heard about Noiz' condition: being the first person to provide him with real pain. The young fellow had just lost pretty all of his appeal for Ryuuhou's taste and the tattooist was already casting him aside as a possible subject for his diligent needle. The only worth he was still holding was as a means to fuel Koujaku's hatred to a point where he would finally outgrow his tattoos, which he eagerly awaited at the moment, and provided Ryuuhou with a sight for sore eyes after having to endure this harsh setback in his plans. His eyes thinned and were opened just barely to send a very dangerous glare towards Noiz, his voice dripping with aversion.  
"My, my, boy. You sure know how to spoil somebody's mood, don't you? I think I'll have to discipline you now that you can actually feel the pain when someone raises a hand against you."  
Ryuuhou clapped his hands in a certain rhythm and all of a sudden Noiz had the very strong urge to fight.

His consciousness sank to a level that still allowed him to watch his own motions, but not to think straight anymore. He was reduced to a simple onlooker trapped in his own body while he bent down to his cast off haori jacket and searched its pockets for the knuckle rings he had brought with himself for self-defense purposes. Finding them, he strapped the rings on his hands without further ado. He had to punch Koujaku now, to strike down that man standing in his way. Noiz wanted to beat him up so badly, he could barely take a hold of himself enough to try judging the situation. He had some trouble to identify this guy right in front of him as "Koujaku" now that he gave him a closer look, though.

Koujaku's red irises burned with fury, while a frightening grimace blemished his face as pulsing veins had popped up near his temples and his teeth were bared and appeared more pointy than usual. His hair had begun to turn red from his hair-ends up to his ears while his strands hung loose now, too - the hairpin usually sitting close to his ponytail having been carelessly cast aside together with the hairband that normally kept Koujaku's hair together. Then another loud scream of Koujaku yelling Ryuuhou's name echoed through the room and Koujaku's eyes turned more and more white with no trace of sanity left in them. Then he grabbed around himself to rip the black Kimono he wore off his body, not minding if he shredded it in the process as his fingernails had grown long like a beasts, leaving his upper body naked aside from the bandages around his torso that he hadn't removed before putting on the disguise earlier that night. His body appeared tense and more muscular than normal. The tattooed peonies usually only attached to Koujaku's back had multiplied and clung to half his body now, including his left arm, as if it was about to consume its bearer, while his tribal tattoo burned red underneath his skin.

Noiz recognized all of these new features, but his brain had been set to fighting mode nevertheless, any kind of fear of his opponent suppressed by the effect Ryuuhou's needle still had on him. He lifted his hands up and took a fighting stance while keeping standing in a direct line between the beastly looking Koujaku and the still way too calm Ryuuhou, whose facial features had taken on an expression of rapture upon Koujaku's appearance.

"Magnificent!"  
He exclaimed as if he was delirious, his level of sanity not being much above the half-mad man in front of him, as a wide grin spread all over his face.  
"I'm glad I chose you to try out Toue's little mind-control experiment, Koujaku. I tattooed you when you were just a child and told you not to loose your temper but you didn't listen to me then and rampaged like a madman as soon as I was done with you. But the flowers weren't ripe enough to bloom in full yet and reverted back to their original form as soon as they had burned down your anger completely. But now something like that won't happen again! They shall bloom and feed on your vitality until you have become one and the same: a marvelous flower burning everything away!"  
He laughed manically and opened up his arms as if to welcome Koujaku's wrath, who rose his blade to strike at him in the next second.

"Oh no, you won't! Not until I have seen it in full bloom!", Ryuuhou chuckled and clapped his hands to signal Noiz to finally attack his enemy.  
"You still have ways to go! We aren't there yet! Let me see some more!"  
He laughed as he watched the scene in front of him unfold.

Noiz ran towards Koujaku with the full intention of striking him down, but Koujaku didn't deem him worth more than a simple nuisance between him and his true enemy and swung at him with his blade just half-halfheartedly. Noiz automatically tried to dodge his attack and wanted to strike back, when he stumbled on his feet and immediately pressed a hand to his stomach before staggering on his feet.

* * *

"Warning! Warning! Danger! Danger!"  
Usagimodoki jumped up and down with its high-pitched voice shrilling as loudly as it could from its confinement in Clear's coat pocket.

"Huh? Wha... What?"  
It was the middle of the night and even though Clear's hearing ability was above a normal human being's and would have registered the Allmate's tiny little voice even if it had just whispered then, he was irritated to be roused from his sleep after having cuddled up with Aoba in his bed.

Aoba was still as fast asleep as before, though even Ren had reactivated from his sleep-mode on his own and tried to wake him up now.  
"Aoba! An emergency has occurred. Wake up, Aoba!"  
He tugged at Aoba's ear and nosed his face to get him to respond.

Clear sat up in bed and looked at Ren in irritation.  
"Ren-san, what is it? And what is this high-pitched sound...?"

He got out of bed to search his coat pockets for the origin of the noise and found Usagimodoki, whose warnings were still given off in a loop as loudly as it could call out while hopping up and down on Clear's open palm now.  
"Emergency! Emergency! Danger! Danger! Life-threatening wound detected! Call an ambulance! Emergency!"

"Eh?"

"It's an emergency frequence it's sending on, even for other Allmates around it.", Ren explained with his usual, deep, calm voice to answer the unasked question in Clear's face.  
"Something must be wrong with Noiz. I suggest helping him out in the fastest way possible."

"But... isn't it calling for an ambulance already?", Clear asked, even though he got up to dress himself in a hurry and tried to wake up Aoba by shaking him now, but he only responded with the request of five more minutes to sleep.

"This isn't the only Allmate Noiz possesses. You know that, Clear, correct?", Ren explained, "Maybe the original ones that are with Noiz right now are unable to send a signal out from where they are, or the signal's not coming through for whatever reason. I suppose their Allmate network is still able to communicate, but it cannot log in to one outside of its own since it called out to us instead. Whatever the cause, I have reason to assume that something very bad has happened to Noiz and sending help his way is a priority right now."

"You're right, Ren-san.", Clear nodded enthusiastically. "Aoba-san! Please snap out of it, it's important!", Clear shook Aoba almost violently now, until the blue-haired man finally opened his eyes.

"What... What's going on here...? Clear?", he asked in irritation, the concerned look on Clear's face and the alarmed sound in his voice instantly worrying him.

"Aoba-san! I need you to hold onto me so we can head over to where Noiz-san is by the fastest way possible: over the rooftops!"

"You... Wait, what?", Aoba seemed to have worked through most of his drowsiness by now, but was still confused as hell.  
"The rooftops? Noiz? What's wrong?"

"No time to explain! I will tell you on the way, Aoba-san, now hurry and get dressed, please!"

Aoba had no clue what was going on, but the urgency in Clear's voice, not to mention the still shrieking voice of Noiz' Allmate spelling "danger" and "emergency" made him snap out of it and hastily put on his jeans, shirt and his jacket and put Ren into his bag, too, just in case.  
Then he followed Clear to his balcony and got on his back, clinging to him really tight before the other leapt off from his feet to reach the nearest rooftop, making his way towards Platinum Jail with Noiz' Allmate stuffed back in his coat pocket giving them directions as they went.

* * *

Noiz had to laugh at himself, even though nothing but a mere chuckle escaped him and he hissed sharply after that. This was pain that he felt right now, the pain he had wished so badly to be able to feel, but right now he would prefer not to sense anything at all. He must have calculated the way Koujaku's arm would swing in his direction incorrectly earlier, or he had not reacted fast enough to get enough distance between him and his blade when he had swung it towards him. Either way the other had cut his abdomen and blood had already seeped out of it to a frightening degree. Well, at least he hadn't hit his visceral artery, judging by the way the blood oozed out of his body. Yet the wound looked pretty dangerous and if he wouldn't do anything this time, he might end up dead for sure pretty fast.

He felt still dazed though, after he had woken up to the stinging pain just a second ago. It wasn't like he had hit his head as he had fallen to the ground after Koujaku had struck him, but the second Ryuuhou's body had been pierced by Koujaku's sword and the madman had fallen to his knees grinning and laughing like a lunatic how great it was for him to get killed by his greatest work of art, a feeling like strings attached to Noiz' body had snapped and he had fallen unconscious on the spot for some reason. Judging by the size of the pool of blood he lay in now he couldn't have been out fore more than a few minutes, though.

Noiz' eyes scanned the room and made eye contact with Ryuuhou's dead stare directed towards total bliss. That asshole even had enjoyed getting killed by Koujaku. Thinking about him, Noiz searched for Koujaku's presence and found him scratching at the door through which they had entered Ryuuhou's room. There were deep scratch marks embedded to the material of the door, but it still withstood Koujaku's attempts at making it give in just fine. Noiz wondered for a second why Koujaku wouldn't try to use his sword at the door, but said item was still stuck in Ryuuhou's dead body and judging by the fact that Koujaku had practically given into insanity before, he might simply not have thought about using his sword to pry open that door yet. Not that he was less dangerous without a weapon at this point.

Noiz moaned under the pain coming from his stomach that grew worse with every breath he took, or rather with every motion of his belly, so he tried to breath in as flatly as he could. Then it struck him as odd that he was still alive at all at the moment.  
The last time Koujaku had went on a killing spree, none of his victims had survived the ordeal. But that didn't mean they had to have been dead on the spot now that Noiz thought about it. Koujaku's mother had died in his arms, so maybe Koujaku had been satisfied with simply swinging his sword around then, consequences unimportant. That didn't mean the same logic would apply now, though.

"Ugh...!"  
Noiz couldn't hold back a groan of pain after his body had tensed up unconsciously.

Suddenly, Koujaku stopped scratching at the door and turned around. His eyes appeared to be completely bloodshot, or rather the part that was supposed to be white was red now with his irises featuring a yellowish green tint instead of their usual crimson colour. Maybe Noiz was imagining things, but the peonies originally tattooed on his back only seemed to have stretched even farther on his body than before and covered a good part of the left side of his upper body, too. And now that the information reached his brain through the veil of pain he realized that Koujaku's hair had turned completely red as well.  
This looked dangerous, way too dangerous, and Koujaku was headed in his direction. The far too new sensation of pain accompanied by other things he was able to recognize now - like the cold sweat that had broken out on his body and ran down his back for example - made him slowly but surely unable to think straight anymore. Noiz' usual way of calmly analyzing a situation was thrown off by the rush of new information drowning his brain coming from his body; pain and anxiety shaking him the most. He just wanted to escape, to run away as fast as he could. But Koujaku stood between him and the door, plus the door was locked, and even if he could have made his virtual keyboard pop up now, there was no telling how much time it would take for him to break the lock on his way out, not to mention the fact whether he even could bring up enough of concentration to do so in the first place.

Koujaku was creeping closer and closer like a blood-thirsty animal, only unintelligible, growling sounds left his drooling mouth as his eyes had locked on to prey that was still moving.

Noiz had to get away from where he was and fast at that, so he feverishly looked around the room if there was somewhere he could flee to. The bed was out of the questions and the rest of the furnishings filling the room were too low to get out of Koujaku's reach or too high to climb them even if he could have managed that. Plus, he doubted Koujaku could be stopped by a mere cupboard or the like. No, there had to be another solution to his problem. And then he spotted another door in the hindmost corner of the room.  
Thinking that whatever lay beyond that door was better than to share a room with Koujaku in his current state, he tried to get to his feet, but crumbled the moment he got up and doubled over in pain again.  
It was no use, he couldn't move like he was used to do it. He had forgotten about the wounds in his legs again, which still pestered him with terrible stings. But the worse part was the bleeding gash on his belly that send waves of hot, piercing pain towards his brain, drowning it in warnings not to move to not make matters worse. The alternative was to possibly get killed by Koujaku now, though, so it answered to the situation with a surge of adrenaline partly numbing the pain and enabling Noiz to at least crawl away on his hands and knees as fast as his aching body and the angst having him in its grip would allow him to.

Koujaku just strode along with a slightly faster pace now, not minding where Noiz was going and still sure that he would be able to catch him wherever he was headed to. Or maybe he was just playing with Noiz now and enjoyed his prey trying to flee from him, it was hard to tell with his current state of mind.

Noiz tried to hurry as fast as he could, leaving trails of blood all over the floor as he went, but then finally arrived at the door he was aiming for, reached for its handle with his outstretched arm, cursed at the pain this movement brought with it and then opened the door to crawl inside and pushed the door shut behind himself with his back to it.  
He breathed heavily, the whole action of escaping out of Koujaku's grasp had taken a more dire toll on his body that he had expected. He hurt all over and the blood seeping out of his body seemed to flow out faster now, he even felt a slight dizziness trying to overcome him, but he shook his head in an attempt to escape it.

He was in a kind of a storeroom now, judging by the slight smell of ink and chemicals reaching his nose and the various shelves with containers right in front of him. Still, this room was no good if it wasn't locked, so Noiz turned around to reach for the lock and then froze instantly.

He was just about to lock himself up in a room.

But he had to do it, there was no way around it!

Lock the door!  
He shouted at himself from inside his own mind.

Just turn the damn lock around and be done with it!  
You finally made it into this room and it's already right in front of your fingers, so just TURN the damn LOCK around!

Noiz was internally screaming at himself even louder now, while he was on all fours behind the door, one hand up to the lock below the doorhandle, the other cramped around his bleeding lower body by instinct.  
He was so close from escaping the life-threatening danger outside, the only thing being left was barricading himself inside of this room, he knew that, yet his shivering hand holding onto the lock wouldn't move. It was almost comical and his face distorted to show an uncomprehending smile on his lips with his brows furrowed in sheer disbelief over the situation.

He swallowed.

His fingers felt numb, even more so than usual, and he was bathed in cold sweat and breathing heavily. But no matter how hard he breathed, the oxygen just wouldn't suffice and only intensify the pain instead. The sound of his heart pounding loudly in his ears made him almost unable to think.

"Hh...! Gh...! Hha...!"

He couldn't, he simply couldn't do it. His fingers wouldn't move, damn it!

Lock the door!  
There is death outside and you're only save in here if you lock yourself in!

"Gha...! Ha...!"

But he couldn't!  
His stomach churned and cramped and made him feel miserable to the point where he was about to throw up from the ill sensation and the pain accompanying it.

Lock.  
The.  
Door!

"No...!"  
He whimpered, his body shivering from the mental strain it fought inside of him and sweat dripped down his temples like crazy. His fingers still wouldn't move, only tremble and then then the wetness on his face just doubled.  
Was he... crying right now?  
No, he couldn't be crying, too!  
But his lips quivered and something wet ran down from his eyes to his cheeks and a translucent liquid dropped from his chin.

He was afraid, so much afraid that it had simply paralyzed him completely.  
The anxiety he felt was even overpowering the fear of ending up death as soon as Koujaku would reach his hiding spot.

This door was not save as long as it wasn't locked.

Turn it!  
Come on, just lock the door!

Noiz breathed jerkily and was about to slide into a crying fit while still shivering all over.  
Then he slowly removed his blood-soaked hand from his wound to put it on top of the other in a new attempt to turn the lock to bolt the door.

Turn.  
It.  
Around!  
You're inside, but the lock is on the same side as you!  
You can open it again anytime you want!  
You're in control!

He was panting hard as he tried to concentrate all of his will into his fingers to turn the lock around, even if his whole body fought against his wish.

Suddenly, a clattering sound from outside like something had fallen over accompanied by a dark, loud roar could be heard from the room behind the door, that made every hair on Noiz' body stand on edge. The first time he experienced goosebumps running down his spine and spreading all over his body caused Noiz to give a start and then a short, clicking sound echoed from the door.  
He had finally done it without meaning to: the door was locked now. The sole fact made Noiz' body grow cold in a second and his hands instantly rattled at the doorhandle in an attempt to open the door again against all logic - the fact that he would simply have to turn the lock the other way to get out of the room again had momentarily vanished from his mind as well.

A low grunt could be heard as if the creature outside had perked up his ears at Noiz' struggle behind the door now. Letting out another growl, Noiz could hear heavy footsteps heading his way again. Startled, he let go of the doorhandle and fell on his lower back, crawling backwards, away from the door and looking for a way to hide himself further away from the monster outside.

Koujaku was already there and began to bang against the door from the outside a few times as if to discern how sturdy this door was in comparison to the other one that he had failed against. Apparently taking on the new challenge, he used his claws and fists in turns to hack against the door, the splintering of wood from outside echoing frightfully loudly in Noiz' ears. This door wouldn't hold up very long. He was as good as dead now.  
But instead of crying about himself he only chuckled in a despairing manner at his own reactions. He never would have thought that the prospect of having to die soon would hit him so hard. Nobody would care if he was dead after all, not even he himself, at least not until now.  
Noiz opened his mouth and spoke with a forlorn undertone in his voice: "I guess... the payment is off then."

He would never know how being close to Koujaku for real would feel now that he actually would have the chance to even enjoy it when the time would come.  
It pissed him off, it angered him, but most of all it made him feel more miserable.  
But all of that seemed to shift to less and less of a concern to him as he had growing trouble keeping conscious now.  
The pool of blood around his body had grown to a considerable size by now.

* * *

There was a loud crash as the frontdoor gave in all of a sudden from an inhuman sort of strength directed towards it by a strong kick and two people barged into the late tattoist's room.

"Noiz! Noiz, are you in here?! Answer me! Noiz!"

It was Aoba's voice calling out his name and then a farther away yell of "Noiz-san!" echoed through the room as well, it must belong to Clear.  
But why would they be here?  
Noiz tried to concentrate enough to piece this puzzle together, but he failed to think straight as he had trouble keeping his eyes open.

"Noiz mustn't fall asleep now!"  
"Keep awake!"  
"Keep awake!"  
The three Usagimodoki cubes dangling from Noiz' waist had activated and chirped at him urgently.

Normally they were set on informing him of wounds that would endanger Noiz' life but they hadn't uttered a word up until now. Noiz briefly wondered whether their A. I. had decided that noise was no good when their owner was in danger of getting noticed by a rampant murderer or if something had intercepted them from acting up way earlier.  
Noiz shook his head.  
It was so hard to think that it was nearly unbearable now.  
He just wanted to sleep so badly.

* * *

The turmoil at Ryuuhou's frontdoor still hadn't died down as two security guards jumped at Clear in an attempt to hinder him from entering their VIP's room, but Clear shook them off without much effort, making them collide with the wall outside and slide down knocked out cold.  
"I am very sorry, but this is an emergency.", Clear apologized with a slight bow towards the unconscious men.  
He already had to storm into the night club earlier with Aoba in tow and beaten up the bouncer at the entrance and some more security personnel they had encountered the farther they had gone and the more floors they had climbed with his superhuman strength. He had tried not to use enough force to endanger their lives, though.  
Then he heard Aoba scream from inside of the room and followed suit.

"Aoba-san, what's wro-?!"  
His eyes widened at the sight that had made Aoba let out a scream: The floor was soaked with blood with a corpse pierced by a sword lying in the middle of the room. A room divider had been thrown over and half-smashed to pieces as well, but the most shocking display was without a doubt the hunched over, growling beast of a man looking at them now. His burning ruby eyes bore into them and his bushy, red hair stood on edge like the mane of a lion while he appeared to take on a fighting stance now, his claw-like fingers twitching already with the desire to kill his new prey.

Aoba's eyes frantically searched the room for a sign of Noiz, but couldn't find anything other than a trail of blood on the floor leading to the scratched door this monster of a man stood right in front of at the moment.  
"Noiz! Answer me, Noiz, are you in there?! Noiz!"

There was no reaction from beyond the door, but Aoba was pretty sure he was on the right track here. He turned around to Clear and spoke to him with a tight voice.  
"Clear, can you... do something about this guy in front of that door? I think Noiz is behind it but if this terrifying guy is the cause of all of this it might be dangerous to get closer to him."

Clear had already prepared himself for a new battle the moment that red-haired man had made even the attempt to see them as their enemies. His usually carefree features were schooled into a nearly emotionless mask that only calculated the rate of success of opening combat.  
"Don't worry, Aoba-san, I've got your back."

That said, he stormed towards the snarling hunk of a man with a battle cry and headbutted him out of the way, making room for Aoba to get to the door while he tried to hold him down.

Aoba rattled at the doorhandle only to find out that the door was locked.  
"Noiz, can you hear me? The door is locked, open it up! Noiz!"  
There was still no answer and a growing panic rose in Aoba. Seeing the pretty bad state the door was in due to it having been scratched and battered by the other man already, he then decided to kick it in instead. The first two kicks bore no success but the third one finally made the the door give in and it swung open with a pitying squeak.

Behind it lay Noiz in a puddle of his own blood, looking at Aoba only half awake but weakly smiled at him.

"Noiz!", Aoba exclaimed before kneeling right beside him and inspecting the wound he still clutched to with one of his hands, but allowed Aoba to shove it aside.  
Aoba swallowed hard as he looked at his wound, but lost no time to hastily rip out strips of Noiz' open hanging shirt to try to stop the bleeding by wrapping it around his body. Noiz watched him from the corner of his eyes and flinched when Aoba tugged too hard at the made-up bandaging material while he knotted it together provisionally.

"Noiz listen to me now, you have to stay awake! You hear me? We'll get you to a hospital asap, just stay awake up until then. Do not fall asleep!"

Noiz huffed a very weak laugh his way, but had trouble keeping his eyes from drawing shut again and again.

Aoba began to panic as the thought of "What should I do? What should I do?!" echoed through his mind repeatedly. Then a loud thumping noise rang in his ears and his amber eyes began to glow with a fearsome yellow before a reverberating voice rang out of his mouth: "Keep your eyes open!"

Noiz winced and a faint gasp spilled from his lips, but his eyes were forced to stay open, even though his eyelids quivered.  
"So... So cold... I'm sleepy...", he whispered with his voice rougher than usual.

A loud bang echoed from outside as Clear had slammed the snarling beast with the red hair against the wall close to the little room with Noiz and Aoba inside of it. Clear pressed his forearm against his throat as his opponent struggled like a beast and tried to claw at him, snarling at him all the while.

"Kou... jaku...", Noiz moaned with effort and tried to lift a hand his way.

Aoba gave a jerk at this name.  
"Koujaku? Is he here, too? Where is he?!"

Noiz looked at him like he had trouble understanding Aoba's question. Then he grinned, or at least he attempted to do so before another groan took hold of him.  
"What are... you saying...? He is right... in front of you... Aren't you... best friends or something?"

Aoba's eyes widened and he turned his head around to stare at the man spitting with rage and struggling against Clear's hold on him.  
"Kou... jaku...?"

The beast focused his attention towards Aoba upon the hearing of his name, his blood-red eyes glaring at him with the sole intent to kill.

Aoba turned pale and began to shake under his stare before he mumbled "Impossible...!" in shock upon this revelation.

Noiz tugged weakly at the sleeve of his jacket, making Aoba snap out of it and turn around in alarm.  
"Noiz...! Right, the hospital, you need medical attention! Just try to hold onto me, I'll get you out of here!"

He tried to put Noiz' arm around his shoulders to help him get up, but Noiz didn't move. Instead he whispered in his ear when Aoba was close enough: "Use your power on him... like you did... on me just now. ...Maybe you... can help."

Aoba stared back at him in utter confusion.

Noiz gave back a wry smile and he appeared to have newfound trouble keeping his eyes open, the power of Aoba's voice had its limits it seemed. Then he fell unconscious, even with his eyes only half-closed.

"Noiz! Noiz! Oi! Don't do this to me! Noiz!"  
Aoba slapped his cheek, then shook him almost violently but got no response out of the young man lying in his arms.  
"NOIZ!"

"Aoba!"  
The deep voice of a fluffy ball of dark blue fur, who had poked his head out from the inside of Aoba's bag, called him back to reality.  
"I still can detect life signs from Noiz' body. Do not panic. Panic cannot help him now."

"Ugh...!"  
Aoba hitched a breath and then nodded as he bit back tears that had already formed in his eyes due to his desperation.

He still couldn't believe that this fearsome monster of a man with burning eyes and blood-coloured hair really was really his old childhood-friend Koujaku. But now that he looked closer, his face was very similar, even if it was distorted by rage and thick veins were protruding on his temples. The scar across his nose was the same, though, and the part of his tattoo that had always been visible through the cleavage of his kimono had a familiar shape. But the former black colour of his tattoo had changed to a burning red now and Aoba never would have thought that it spanned all across Koujaku's body like that. The flowers coiling around his arm, chest and back were especially new to him. He felt like a completely different person to Aoba, not just because of his current appearance but because there were so many new things Aoba hadn't known about his best friend yet. But if he knew one thing for sure it was that something was terribly wrong with Koujaku right now.

But could he really help him with his powers like Noiz had just suggested it?  
He doubted that a simply command like "Calm down!" or the like would have any effect on this bundle of rage out there. So the only other way to use his power was to actually scrap Koujaku and enter his mind to get him back to his senses somehow. Aoba feared messing things up if he were to make use of his power that way, but on the other hand this was Koujaku who was in dire need of some mental fixing and he couldn't stand the thought of his old friend staying the way he was now for the rest of his life. This wasn't Koujaku, this was just madness trapped into a human form.

Aoba made a decision and called out to Clear again.  
"Clear! I need you to bring Noiz to the hospital as fast as possible! Take Ren with you, he'll direct you the right way!"  
That said, Aoba took Ren out of his bag and placed him into Noiz' lap.

Clear concentrated his strength in his arms and won the battle of endurance he had fought with Koujaku and made him fly across the room and colliding with the opposite wall, stalling him for the time being. Then he ran over to Aoba and scooped Noiz' up in his arms to carry him princess-style with a worrying look at Aoba.  
"Is Aoba-san not coming, too?"

Aoba had risen to his feet and walked towards the grumbling Koujaku shaking his head at the pain his collision with the wall had caused him.  
"No, I still have something important to do here."  
Then he turned around and gave Clear a determined look.  
"Now hurry up, Noiz' life is in danger! You have to safe him, Clear!"

Clear swallowed hard. He knew how urgent Noiz' situation was but the prospect of having to leave Aoba alone with a man having gone berserk like the one over there was putting him in a dilemma.  
"Is... Is this a command of you as my master, Aoba-san?", he asked him with a pressed voice and made Aoba turn around again.

Aoba's still had a resolute look on his face, but some anger had seeped into his features by now, too.  
"This was me asking you to save the life of a friend of mine, Clear! And by the way I thought you trusted me!"

"Kh...!"  
Clear let out a sharp breath between his gritted teeth before he finally stood up and told Ren to hold on tight before he left the room in a pace that was second to none, headed towards the fastest way to get Noiz some much needed medical attention.

Aoba turned his attention back to Koujaku, who rose from his unwanted seating position and took a stand in front of Aoba, apparently ready to take him on as his new target.

Aoba swallowed hard. He wasn't sure how exactly he was going to pull that off, even though a far-away voice in his head shouted that it wanted to destroy, destroy, destroy now since Aoba had began to think about wanting to use Scrap again.

Koujaku let out a roar as he charged at him and Aoba ran towards him, focusing his whole attention on his enraged eyes as he shouted: "Koujaku! I'm going inside of you now!"

There was a clashing sound before everything around Aoba turned white.


	10. Chapter 10

Having entered Koujaku's mind, Aoba found himself in a traditional Japanese room with tatami mats on the floor and paper covered sliding doors separating each room from the other. The doors had a gloomy looking dragon pattern painted on it and the fact that it was only dimly lit by some candles on a table added to a feeling of discomfort it gave off. Aoba went over to the nearest sliding door in front of him and tried to open it, but as soon as he had slid it open just a little, a sudden yell of "Don't look!" gave him a fright and he let go of the door, which slid back shut immediately. Kind of startled but no less intending to give up just like that, Aoba tried to pry open the door once more, a new wave of "Don't look!" rushing through his ears, but this time he was prepared for it to happen and doubled his efforts to open the door instead. The words, which carried Koujaku's voice, didn't let up to plead with him however.

"Don't try to shut me out, Koujaku!", Aoba groaned under the strain of forcing the door to open, which in turn tried to slid back into place.  
"I'm here to help you, not to shun or laugh at you, so let me in, please. Koujaku!"

The voice echoing across the room suddenly died down and the door gave up its resistance against Aoba, prompting him to use too much force now and to tumble into the next room instead of entering it normally. This room looked exactly like the one he had just been in before, though, and Aoba wondered for a brief second whether he had really just changed rooms at all, or if he was still at point zero. Determined to keep on trying he entered the next room and the room after that and the one beyond the next few dozens doors as well, which all would allow him to pass through them, but none of them lead him to a different room than the one he was in before.

Aoba came to a halt and addressed Koujaku in a disappointed voice.  
"Koujaku, don't you want me to help you after all? But I'm already here and you let me in earlier, so... Why are you doing this to me now? Are you.. afraid of me?"  
The fact that Koujaku might be afraid of being exposed by him irked Aoba for two reasons. Firstly, he still saw him as some kind of hero even if he was no longer a child now and the days Koujaku had come to his rescue lay way back in the past. Secondly, Aoba always had thought they were the best of friends with no secrets between the two of them to be too embarrassing or too serious not to be shared and to work something out if necessary.  
"Aren't we friends anymore, Koujaku?"

Aoba sighed in a heartbroken way and just then the door in front of him slid open on its own accord, a small opening revealing a different room than the one he had been wandering through this whole time. He was about to enter this new room, but before he could move even an inch from where he was standing, he was suddenly greeted by a red-haired monster in a shredded, red kimono appearing out of nowhere right in front of him and scowling at him. He gave Aoba a start and he took a few steps back on instinct, but then the other man's face warped with sadness and he turned his back towards Aoba, his hand put on the sliding door as if he wanted to close it again while he uttered: "Please, don't look."

He had said it in a broken tone, but Aoba just put a hand on his shoulder from behind and answered him calmly.  
"I need to see it, Koujaku. I want to know everything about you. I want to help you coping with whatever is eating at your heart."

He could feel the man tremble under his simple touch and then Koujaku turned around with his usual, if sad face instead of the look of terror he had given off only a moment earlier. His eyes were his normal crimson red, even if they glistened with fear, and his hair had taken on its usual, raven colour, even if it still spilled freely over his shoulders and the tips were tinged red up to his neck.  
"Please don't despise me afterwards."

"I won't.", Aoba reassured him with not even a hint of hesitation in his voice and Koujaku stepped aside to allow him to enter the new room now.

Aoba grabbed the door and shoved it open completely, entered the other room, which was wholly coloured red, and then a sudden feeling of something slithering by his feet made him jump and look around frantically while the door slid shut and locked behind him by itself.  
What had that been just now? It had felt like some kind of hair touching his ankles for a split second, but there was nothing to be seen by his feet. The light in the room flickered and made him look up and Aoba froze instantly upon the display right in front of him.

There lay a child version of Koujaku on a futon in the room, his back bared and shining red while he bit his arm, apparently trying to escape from the pain on his back by concentrating on another part of his body. The source of Koujaku's pain was a man sitting right beside him and seeming to tattoo his back. Aoba didn't recognize him at first glance, but as he looked closer his memory provided him with the image of the corpse of a man lying in his own blood with a crazy grin etched into his features during his last moments.  
Aoba gasped. So this man was the same who had tattooed Koujaku when he was just a child? And judging by the wickedness shown on the man's face he enjoyed torturing Koujaku with his tools as he forced his needles down on his skin again and again, a characteristic shakki-sound echoing from puncturing his skin by the use of the Tebori method. He could hear Koujaku whimper in pain and it made Aoba's heart ache just to listen to it.

The moment Aoba came closer to the futon an unidentifiable black mass sprang out of nowhere with a sizzling sound and lunged at Koujaku, covering him up completely in a heartbeat in something that resembled a black cocoon.

Koujaku cried out again and then splashing sounds against the paper thin walls of the room accompanied by the shrieks of dozens of people and blood scattering all over the place made Aoba look around in confusion. The angry roar of something like a beast could be heard in the distance and then a worn-out woman appeared in the room, her undershirt becoming more and more dyed by blood the closer she got to the cocoon Koujaku was trapped in. Falling to the ground before she could reach her destination, she only uttered Koujaku's name in a broken tone as she reached out to him before ceasing to move.  
Aoba blinked. That had definitely been the voice of Koujaku's mother there, her haggard appearance had just baffled him for a few moments. Aoba's ears caught Koujaku moaning inside of the cocoon as if to answer his mother's cry and his heart clenched yet again. What kind of a gruesome memory was that?

"Don't look."  
Koujaku's pleading voice echoed in his mind, but Aoba grit his teeth and forced himself to take in every detail, as terrible as it might be. This was the reason Koujaku's soul was suffering and there had to be something he could do to make it stop, there simply had to.

Maybe there was a way to free Koujaku from this cocoon for starters, so he headed over there, but the second he came close to it, a burning, hot sensation made his back ache and brought him to his knees. This must be the pain Koujaku was suffering from right now, it was nearly unbearable for Aoba, even though he was a grown-up man. How bad must it have been for a mere child then? Aoba heard Koujaku moan in anguish and continued to reach out for the cocoon. He managed to tear it apart, even though it was straining and painful to no ends, but then Koujaku was finally lying there free of his restraints again. The moment Aoba wanted to touch his bloodied back however, the red substance peeled off his skin and began to form something akin to the shadow of a person with a twisted grin on their face. Aoba couldn't be sure, but he was confident that this ugly smile belonged to the dead tattooist that was still alive inside of Koujaku's mind and tormenting him even as he had passed on in reality already. Aoba didn't know how it all worked, but he was sure that this red ghost of the dead man was the source of Koujaku's ailment and that he had to destroy it.

Shouting at it to let go of Koujaku, Aoba delivered a blow towards the red figure standing in his way and the creature burst open like a bubble and blood splattered everywhere. Aoba just tried to get to Koujaku to wake him up, when all of a sudden something akin to an old movie started flashing in front of Aoba's eyes. Koujaku showed him how that tattooist, whose name was Ryuuhou, had tormented him for months until he could no longer bear it. He told him that he had only endured the whole procedure as a means to become his father's successor, so his mother would be spared the hatred of his father's wife and the strikes of his old man. Then the agonizing screams of various people returned to the scene as Koujaku recreated the events that had taken place after the tattoo had been finished and he had lost his mind for the first time. He had been unable to stop himself, his consciousness being lost as he had brought his blade down on the entire clan with even his own mother being among the victims in the end.

"Even if I was able to kill Ryuuhou now, that did nothing against the memories of what I've done within myself. I was made into a monster when he finished that tattoo and a monster I still am.", the grown-up version of Koujaku cried with remorse after he had appeared right in front of Aoba. The bloody substance Aoba had smashed to pieces just a moment earlier revived itself and slid up Koujaku's body to his back, covering it and letting his tattoo bloom and coil around his body anew, changing him into the horrifying, red-haired beast from before.

"Koujaku!", Aoba called out to him, but he didn't react to him and kept on roaring in his agony, the whole small world in his mind began to shake and parts of it began to crumble. He was on the verge of loosing himself to his self-hatred and if this went on for much longer he might break his own mind. He even might kill himself in a rampant rage in reality if he were to go on like that, so Aoba gave another loud shout of his name.  
"Koujaku! Don't give in now! KOUJAKU!"

The red-haired monster turned his eyes back at Aoba, the colour of his irises kept changing between crimson and a terrifying yellowish green tint with the usually white part of his eyes swirling with a bloodied red.  
"Ao... ba...!", his voice sounded dry and broken, but he forced himself to listen to him with a pitiful look on his face.

"You cannot change what happened in your past! But what happened then was not entirely your fault! It was the fault of this tattoo, of all the strain put on your body and your soul, of you being too young to cope with all this by yourself! But don't give up now, Koujaku! You made it here already! You tried to leave the memories behind and grew from what you have experienced! You try to be the best you can, so I will try to break what has been chaining you down until now!"

The only thing Aoba could do with his Scrap was to destroy. The last time he had tried to use it he had been able to enter Clear's mind, but Clear was able to make his own decisions without his meddling being necessary. The only other person's mind he had entered before that had been Mizuki's and Mizuki had broken down because he hadn't understood him, hadn't trusted in the good inside of him enough to help him out.  
But it would be different with Koujaku, Aoba was sure of it. Even if all the memories he had been shown by his old friend had really scared him - for what they contained and for the fact that he hadn't known about any of them before respectively - the strong urge to want to help Koujaku in his time of need was still burning fiercely inside of him and he felt a strong wave of power pooling within his body. The strong urge to destroy had been revived and wanted to be let out, but Aoba would be controlling what had to be destroyed now and he decided to direct his power towards the deep mental wounds keeping Koujaku in their grasp.

The scene changed and Aoba found himself reduced to a mere onlooker of events again, as Koujaku in his normal appearance met an Aoba that was all too willing to cuddle up to Koujaku and allow him to touch him like he pleased. Koujaku wouldn't go beyond some light petting and a few chaste kisses however and appeared to be kind of in disbelief himself upon this meek version of Aoba being held willingly in his arms.

He told this Aoba, who only answered Koujaku with one-liners and was totally giving into his every wish, that it was actually the thought of Aoba's smiling face that had kept Koujaku from taking his life after he had awoken from slaying his entire family. Aoba was the force that grounded Koujaku to the world of the living and without him by his side, Koujaku might have strayed from his path a long, long time ago.

The Aoba overlooking this whole scene was touched by Koujaku underlining his importance in his life the way Koujaku had done it, but at the same time he was really embarrassed that his best friend was willing, no actually wanting to touch him in this kind of seductive way, even kissing him and cuddling up to him like some kind of lover.  
But Aoba had already Clear by his side now and he wouldn't betray him by any means, even if it would make Koujaku smile like the love-drunk idiot that he portrayed right now if he did.

He wanted to step up and tell Koujaku that he had to stop to run away from his problems by creating such a fake world in the corner of his mind, when the Aoba lying in Koujaku's arms began to weird Koujaku out by flashing in and out of existence like a bad signal on a TV screen. Aoba briefly wondered if this reaction was due to his own thoughts of rejecting Koujaku's feelings for him somewhere bled through to this world since his and Koujaku's mind were still connected by the powers of his Scrap.

The Aoba in Koujaku's arms had been reduced to mere static by now, but all of a sudden his shape changed to come out as an entirely different person straddling Koujaku's lap this time, his bandaged hands grabbing at his kimono and his green gaze boring into Koujaku's red eyes.

"Aren't you forgetting something, old man?", the onlooker-Aoba heard the familiar, dry voice of a certain brat that had appeared right in front of Koujaku's nose speak up.  
"You still owe me some repayment for what I have done for you."  
He pulled Koujaku closer by turning his wrists and kissed him hotly, shocking and embarrassing not only Koujaku but also Aoba with the act, who was still condemned to the peanut gallery and nothing more than an added consciousness on this layer of Koujaku's mind.  
Noiz ended the hot kiss with a loud smack of their mouths and a string of saliva still connected him to Koujaku before he licked his lips and featured all the charm of a complete minx.  
"I want more of your kisses. Don't forget that."

Koujaku had turned as red as a tomato and was stuttering unintelligible nonsense before lifting a hand to his mouth in sheer disbelief of what his own mind had just brought onto him. Aoba found the sight to be almost comical and was about to say something when the whole room shone in a complete white light and they were thrown back to the red tatami room with Koujaku in his half-transformed state still pressing a hand to his lips.

He suddenly noticed Aoba standing right beside him and apparently wanted to ask if he had seen the same things he did, but Aoba gave him such a smug kind of a smile, that Koujaku just knew he had observed him and wanted to sink right into the floor then and there because of the awkwardness of the situation.

Aoba chuckled and drew Koujaku in a friendly embrace, patting his head.  
"See, I'm not the only one wishing for you to hold on to your life, Koujaku. You will have to face things that you tried to run away from all this time, but it's important that you do so. There is no way to make the things of your past never happen. You know that, don't you, Koujaku?"

Koujaku didn't answer him, but Aoba had a certain feeling that he understood.

"So the only option left for you is to live on with your memories, even with this nasty tattoo and not to give in to either of them. And if you are ever in doubt that you're capable to do so I will be there to tell you that you are, Koujaku. I'll always be your best friend and nothing's ever gonna change that fact, you got it?"

Koujaku let out a low huff in response and smiled a little. It kind of stung in his heart to know that he would never be able to have a deeper connection than just friendship between himself and Aoba, but on the other side he couldn't hope for a better friend then him, who would go so far for him to try to heal his heart.

Well... maybe there was somebody besides Aoba waiting in line, who had no powers aside from his sharp mind and tongue, but he wasn't here right now. But Koujaku already knew that this other person had accepted him for who he was, even before Koujaku himself had been ready for it. So in a way he was here, too, even if not for real.

Aoba ended the embrace and stared deeply into Koujaku's eyes.  
"I'm going to destroy you, Koujaku. I will destroy all that's holding you back, your past and the you that's unable to move forward."

As the sound of Aoba's voice reverberating in his ears, cracks like on a broken mirror appeared all over Koujaku's projection of his mind and a second later the image shattered completely with the shards disappearing and making room for a light breaking free from inside of his soul.

* * *

Koujaku opened his eyes and groaned. He felt like the headache thumping in his head was killing him and then he tried to remember why he was lying on the hard ground in the first place now. His gaze wandered towards Aoba, who lay there right beside him and woke up just now, a hand raised to his head and wincing under the pain of a headache as well.

"Aoba."  
Koujaku's tone was gentle, if a bit worn out and he smiled at him thankfully.

"Koujaku."  
Aoba responded with an answering smile and was happy to see his old friend in his usual appearance: crimson eyes, jet-black hair and no glowing red tattoos consuming his soul or body anymore, just the usual ones decorating his skin.

But then a crackling sound reached both their ears and as they turned around they saw that a fire had started in the room not far from them. When Aoba had thrown himself towards Koujaku to scrap him earlier and both of them had fallen to the ground unconscious afterwards, they must have thrown over the oil lamp burning inside Ryuuhou's room and its fire had set the knocked over paper room divider already on the floor aflame.

"We have to get out of here!", Koujaku voiced what Aoba had thought as well and they hastily got to their feet and tried to flee the room.

The fire already ate at the room's interior with a passion and would soon reach the frontdoor now as well. As they ran towards the exit, they had to pass by Ryuuhou's corpse and Koujaku first didn't spare it another look, but then took a turn and swiftly removed his sword from the tattooist's dead body.

"Koujaku! What are you doing?!", Aoba yelled at him as he had stopped dead in his tracks as well to see what Koujaku was returning for and then he suddenly felt something odd below his feet.  
"Eh?"  
Removing the sole of his shoe from the ground, he saw the red hairpin Koujaku usually wore at the base of his ponytail and bent down to gather it up in his hand, since it would have been a waste to just let it burn like that.

"Aoba! Sorry for the wait, let's hurry!", Koujaku told him as he had caught up to Aoba and they both continued to flee the room as fast as they could.

They would have tried to shut the door, but Clear had ruined it so badly as he had kicked it in earlier that it would be no use trying to close it anymore.

"Shit! There are still other people in here!", Aoba exclaimed when he saw the security guards lying unconscious on the ground in front of Ryuuhou's room and remembered the dozens of people on the dance floors on the lower decks.  
"Koujaku! Help me out!", he yelled at him and Koujaku lost no time to grab one of the guards to hoist him over his shoulder while Aoba grabbed for the other's arm and waist to half-carry him as well. Then they made their way towards the stairs with Aoba setting off the fire alert by the exit to have the building evacuated and the fire department alerted.

* * *

Heaving and panting from their ordeal as they sat on the ground outside of the night club and watched the people streaming out of the building half in order and half in panic, Aoba looked over at Koujaku, who gave off the vibe of somebody who had lost a huge burden he had carried.

But then the reason why Aoba had come here in the first place resurfaced in his mind and he was suddenly very worried about Noiz' current condition.  
"I wonder how Noiz is doing."  
The sentence had left his mouth before he had time to think about what kind of impact his simple question might have on Koujaku and he wanted to slap himself as he saw the sudden horror in Koujaku's eyes at Aoba's question.

"Noiz...!"  
Koujaku's eyes snapped back to the place they had just come from and he was halfway about to get back in there to search for Noiz whom he couldn't remember where he had disappeared to, when Aoba grabbed him by the wrist and forced him to take a few steps back.

"Don't go back in there, Koujaku! Noiz is at the hospital! I sent him away with Clear earlier! Don't you remember?"

Koujaku stared at him with eyes wide open, the look on his face clearly stating that he indeed could not remember anything that had happened while he was trapped in the form of that red-haired monster, who had raged without rhyme or reason.  
"The last thing... I remember...", Koujaku began to stutter as he tried to sort his memories, "...is sinking my sword into Ryuuhou's body. After that I kind of blacked out, I-!"  
A thought had struck him right then.  
"No, just before that, right before that Noiz was coming at me and I...! I have...!"  
Koujaku sank down to his knees upon remembering having swung his sword towards Noiz, making him topple over and leaving him for dead before aiming his blade at Ryuuhou. And now he was at the hospital, but that meant...  
"He's still alive?", Koujaku asked bewildered yet with clear hope in his voice as his jaw was beginning to shake before some serious shivers took hold of his whole body.  
"Is he okay now?!"

Aoba was distraught by the fact that Koujaku had inflicted that kind of wound on Noiz' body, but at the same time he had seen how much beside himself Koujaku had acted under the influence of his tattoo. He hadn't been himself and now that he was sane again the shock of what he had done had reduced him to a pile of a panicking, quivering mess. Aoba put a hand on Koujaku's shoulder and spoke in a soothing voice.

"I don't know, Koujaku, but I'm sure Clear tried his best to get him there as fast as possible and he was still alive when they set out to make their way towards the hospital."

"Pi-i-hiii! You want to have an update on Noiz' health status?", a high-pitched voice suddenly squeaked right next to them and gave both of them a fright.

"Uwah! What is that?! Huh?!"  
Aoba looked closer and saw a green and black cube sitting by their feet and staring up to the both of them.  
"One of Noiz' Allmates?"

"Pi!", the Allmate chimed as if to deny Aoba's question and began a sing-song, "I'm a tracker, I'm a tracker on a mission here for Noiz!"  
It shuffled slightly to look up to Koujaku now. "Not letting you out of my sight, even if you won't take me with you!"

Koujaku blinked in sheer disbelief. Was that the cube that had followed him around ever since Noiz had shown up at his workplace and put it in his pocket?  
"Were you here this entire time?"

"Pi!", the cube rang as if to ready itself to answer Koujaku's question, "I've been hopping, hopping, hopping, ever since you left Noiz' room to get to Platinum Jail tonight. You didn't slow down so it took a while to catch up to the both of you. It was mean, it was so mean of you to leave me behind just like that, pi!"

"Oi, oi.", Koujaku waved his hand in front of it as if to rebuke the little cube, "You're not my Allmate, you are Noiz', so why should I take you with me in the first place?"

"But it is my duty not to let you out of my sight! I have not received any other orders from Noiz, pi!"

"Speaking of Noiz", Aoba butted in to their conversation, "How is he? Can you tell us?"

"Pi!", the cube made a pause as it exchanged information with the other cubes via their network before it answered, "Noiz has been brought to Platinum Jail's main hospital. Latest update on condition: critical. Current location: emergency room."

"Kh...!"  
Koujaku let out his breath behind closed teeth and rose up from his knees, gathering up the little cube as he righted himself.  
"Let's go then, lead the way there, cube!"

"My name is Usagi! I'm Usagimodoki!", the little Allmate protested upon being addressed this way by Koujaku and the man gave it an apologizing smile as he nodded.

"My bad then, Usagimodoki it is. I will remember that."

"Pi!"  
The cube seemed satisfied with the apology and led the way for Koujaku and Aoba until they arrived at the impressive looking hospital on the outskirts of Platinum Jail. It seemed close to a miracle that Clear really had made it this far fast enough to still hand over Noiz to some medical personnel when he was still alive. But Aoba knew how determined his boyfriend could become if someone's life depended on it, he had experienced it first-hand once after all.

* * *

After talking to the receptionist and describing whom they were looking for they were directed towards the floor with the emergency room Noiz' was currently treated in. There were benches arranged near the door and one of them was occupied by some worn-out looking white haired male next to a bundle of blue fur.

"Clear! Ren!", Aoba called out to them and ran over to his lover to give him a hug and then petted Ren's head with one hand as well.  
"Are you okay, Clear? How did it go?"

"Aoba-san.", Clear answered him with a tired smile. He must have used a considerable amount of energy to carry Noiz over to the hospital as fast as he could manage it and seemed to need some time to recollect his strength.  
"We made it just in time I believe. I cannot tell if he will make it for sure, but I believe in Noiz-san's will to hold on to life, since it's important."

He surely had tried his best to sound positive but Clear might as well have told the both of them that his efforts had been in vain considering that it meant that all that was left now was to wait and see.

"Noiz...!", Koujaku let out his name in a low, suppressed voice, his hands balled to tight fists next to his body.  
He didn't want to have the young man's blood on his hands as well. He didn't want to be at fault for his death, but most of all he didn't want him to die in the first place.

"Koujaku...", Aoba uttered weakly and tried to put his hand on top of Koujaku's shaking fist, but he drew it away, turned on his heels and began to walk up and down the hallway instead.  
"Can't sit still, huh?" Aoba sighed. He understood. Koujaku blamed himself for what had happened, even if he had been out of his mind at that time. It was the same with what had happened in his past. Heck, it was like Aoba's efforts had been in vain now that Koujaku was faced with a situation so similar to what he had gone through in his life before.  
Aoba sighed again and then looked back at Clear, who had closed his eyes and seemed to try to waste as little energy as possible right now. He really had worked hard for Noiz' sake, no, he probably had tried to make it for Aoba's sake as well. Aoba's smile vanished at the thought of how they had parted right before he had used Scrap on Koujaku. It had been kind of an ugly scene and Aoba didn't want to keep that standing between the two of them.

"Clear?", he tried to get his lover's attention and the other opened his pink eyes to look at him while Aoba stroke his white, fluffy hair in a caressing gesture.  
"Thank you for trying so hard for Noiz - for me - even though I have been mean to you before you took off."

"Aoba-san...?", Clear answered him in a slightly confused voice and Aoba first nosed his cheek before pulling him into another tight embrace and spoke right next to his ear.  
"I trust you completely, Clear, and I know that you trust me as well. It wasn't fair of me to imply something else. I'm sorry, Clear. I love you."

"Aoba-san.", this time Clear's voice carried a relieved undertone and he answered Aoba's embrace with a hug of his own, nuzzling Aoba's neck contentedly.

Koujaku let out a heavy sigh at the two love birds-right in front of him and then he caught himself at the question if he would ever be able to embrace Noiz like that again. His cheeks flushed immediately at the mental image and he turned around to march another round up the hallway when Ren's voice echoed through the silence of the floor all of a sudden.

"Aoba, the light on the emergency room as been turned off. They should come out of the room any minute now."

"Eh?"  
Aoba's head shoot up and he looked towards the door with halted breath and Koujaku came to a halt only a few steps behind him.

Then the door was opened and a hospital bed with Noiz on it was rolled out of the emergency room. Noiz wasn't conscious but he seemed alive at least while his bed was maneuvered over to the closest elevator and Aoba asked what exactly his condition was. Koujaku followed Noiz with his eyes as his bed was rolled passed him and suddenly he felt so much at ease that his knees gave in and he cowered on the floor, his face put in his hands and breathing out a sigh of relief.

"Koujaku!"  
Aoba had turned around and headed over to Koujaku now, after the doctor had told him what he had wanted to know, even though he had restricted the details of the information, since Aoba was not part of Noiz' family.  
Aoba knelt down next to Koujaku and stroke his back, talking to him in a consoling tone.  
"It's okay now, Koujaku. The doctor just told me that Noiz is out of the woods and that he'll be just fine in a few days. The worst part about his condition was the loss of blood, the cut on his belly in itself was not that bad, at least it only destroyed skin and muscles, but your blade just barely grazed his entrails or something. It seems that the wound itself was not as bad as it might have looked at first glance and they had no trouble stitching him up."  
Aoba noticed Koujaku shivering and tears gushing out from the palms pressed to his eyes.  
"There, there, it's okay now, Koujaku. It's okay. Let it all out."  
Aoba continued stroking Koujaku's back as his best friend cried silently.

"Noiz is fine! Noiz is fiiine!", the green and black cube that had accompanied Koujaku and Aoba on their way to the hospital squealed with joy and hopped up and down, its mechanical voice sounding as joyfully as it could manage, making Aoba laugh and nod his head with an approving sound.


	11. Chapter 11

Noiz slept for the next couple of days, which worried Aoba, even though the doctor had informed him that it was probably just his body needing some time to recuperate, even more so if he had gone through some serious mental stress as well. He had tried to interrogate Aoba and Koujaku about what had happened, but Koujaku had just bitten his lower lip and refused to answer, so Aoba had made up a story that Noiz had been the victim of a knife fight between Rhyme and Rib players, which occurred from time to time on the backstreets of Midorijima. He surely hoped that the doctor wouldn't catch up on the fact that Noiz had been brought to the hospital the same night lots of people had been admitted into hospital due to smoke intoxication from the night club in the Flame Willow district going up in flames. If he believed the news on TV, it seemed that there were no deaths to report, aside from the corpse of a well-known tattooist, whose knocked over oil lamp was believed to have been the source of the fire. The night club had apparently not burned down completely since one of its visitors had called the firefighters pretty early on via the in-house fire alert. Still not all the people had gotten out of the club in time to not be at least intoxicated by smoke, probably due to a lot of them being drugged and not reacting fast enough. Aoba didn't care much about that to be honest, he was just glad that nobody else had died that night.

He came to visit Noiz at the hospital every day to ask about the progress of his condition. It wasn't like he felt much closer to Noiz now than he had before, but there was still a lingering feeling of disbelief whether Noiz really would be fine as long as he didn't wake up. Plus Aoba visited Noiz to get a glance on how Koujaku was holding up as well. Ever since Noiz had left the emergency room and Koujaku had calmed down a bit after an initial feeling of relief had washed over him, due to the fact that he hadn't killed Noiz after all, Koujaku sat by his bed as long as the visiting hours would allow it. He put on a smile every time he noticed Aoba entering the room, but whenever he was alone, or failed to react in time to Aoba showing up, Aoba could see that his usual expression was a sad, blank stare. Aoba guessed that Koujaku must still feel terribly guilty for what had happened to Noiz.

Today Aoba hadn't come to visit Noiz yet, because his shift at Heibon hadn't ended yet. Visiting hours were nearly over anyway, but Koujaku always sat there until the last minute, or until a nurse would show up and tell him in a gentle voice that he had to go home now, too. Koujaku could convince her to stay half an hour longer by the use of his charm most of the time, though.

He sighed as he sat on his usual chair by Noiz' bedside. He was holding Noiz' hand in his and caressed it with his thumb in a slow, circling motion, even if he was pretty sure that Noiz wouldn't be able to recognize his touch anyway. The young man wasn't even in a critical condition anymore, just sleeping, but Koujaku felt like there was still a heavy burden weighing him down. It was not so much the severity of Noiz' condition that bothered him but rather the fact that he had drawn his sword to aim at Noiz in the first place and that he had hurt him in the end.  
He hadn't been himself then, he knew that. Ryuuhou's tattoo had eaten away at his sanity and he had not been able to think properly at that time; he KNEW that. Still, knowing it didn't erase what had happened and Koujaku continued to feel miserable about it.  
He sighed again, held back a light sniff and guided Noiz' hand to his forehead while closing his eyes and kept being deep in thought.

"Hey, don't make it look like I'm dying here, old man.", Noiz' voice sounded weakly but no less amused as he gave Koujaku a tired grin from his pillow.

Koujaku tore his eyes open as if to reassure himself that Noiz had indeed woken up. Then he immediately let go of his hand, stared at him for another second and rushed out of the room without a word.

Noiz looked after him and had no clue what had just happened. He stared at the hand Koujaku had been holding only a few seconds ago and could still feel a lingering feeling of it being warm and... what was it called again? "Ticklish"? It was a tiny, odd sensation prickling on the back of his hand, but it was weirdly pleasantly as well.  
Then Noiz experimentally closed and opened up his hand a few times just to get the feeling of his fingertips and nails touching his palm and each other as he moved them.  
This was dumb, but he liked it for some reason.  
He snickered shallowly.

Looking at the door, he wondered why Koujaku had fled the scene like that. Had his condition been so critical that him waking up was such big news that Koujaku had to run out of the room to tell the world or something? It didn't feel like he had slept that long at all to him and Noiz doubted that a simple cut would leave him in such bad a state. Oh, okay, now that he thought about it, there had been a moment when he had thought that he was dying from the loss of blood. He briefly remembered that the last time he had seen Koujaku the man had gone crazy with rage and the sudden memory of his brawny, red-haired form with no sanity left in his eyes made goosebumps appear all over Noiz' skin.

He couldn't still be afraid of Koujaku, could he?  
He had been fine with him holding his hand just now. Well, he had looked pretty normal after all.

Noiz paused in his thoughts.

Why had Koujaku turned back to his usual self in the first place?  
Was that even possible with his mind gone to the degree it had been?  
Noiz was sure that he had forgotten something very important happening, when somebody knocked on his door and announced that he was about to enter.

It was Aoba.

Oh.  
Right.

"Hello, Noiz. How are you doing?", Aoba greeted him as he slipped into the room and took a seat next to his bed.

Noiz gave him a blank stare. He wasn't sure why Aoba would trouble himself with visiting him and looked back at the door, half-expecting Koujaku to show up behind him, too.

Aoba wondered what Noiz was looking at, but then it dawned on him.  
"Oh, if you're looking for Koujaku, he left earlier already. I just met him on my way inside and he told me that you had woken up and that he would inform the doctor about this now."  
He gave Noiz a kind of complicated look as if he knew more about what was going on with Koujaku than Noiz did, which annoyed the young man for some reason and he furrowed his short brows a little with a tiny pout.  
Aoba gave a short laugh at his reaction and asked Noiz again: "So, how are you feeling? Does it hurt badly?"

Noiz gave him a questioning look, but then his view fell upon his stomach covered by the bedsheets and he tried to move his body tentatively, only to hiss and moan in pain a second later.

"Uwah! What are you doing? Don't try to sit up all of a sudden!"  
Aoba was flailing about in kind of a panic at Noiz' sudden movement and the younger man just slid back into place, his eyes still caught on to the part of his body that hurt right now.  
"Take it easy, you've just been stitched up, okay?", Aoba reminded him with a caring expression on his face.

Noiz huffed a short, dry laugh.  
"Yeah... it hurts... quite a bit, haha."

Aoba gave him a look like Noiz wasn't right in the head.  
"What's so funny about that?"

"Nothing, just... It hurts. I've never felt something like this."

"Is it so bad?", Aoba's worried look intensified, but Noiz kept on smiling a shy smile.

"No, it's fine, I guess. Don't know how much it is supposed to hurt."

Aoba still gave him a look like he didn't know where Noiz was coming from, but then just told him if it was too bad he should inform the doctor so he could give him some painkillers.  
Noiz wasn't sure if he really wanted something in his system to dim his new sensations, though, even if the feedback was not positive right now.

"So, can you tell me something, Noiz?", Aoba asked with kind of a pressed voice as if he was unsure whether he dared to ask this, but Noiz just offered him his full attention with his usual, stoic countenance as if to silently urge him to just ask instead, so Aoba continued with a troubled look on his face.  
"Do you despise Koujaku for what has happened to you at the night club?"

Noiz blinked.  
Despise him?  
"Why...?"  
He blurted it out without even meaning to and heard Aoba let out a sigh of relief and saw him smile at him.

"That's good to know. Koujaku is beating himself up over the fact that he's responsible for your condition, even if the events were out of his control at the time it happened."  
Aoba gave Noiz a serious, questioning look.  
"You do know he wasn't sane that time, right?"

Noiz nodded.  
Koujaku was not to blame for what had taken place that night and Noiz found it stupid that the man in question still thought what had happened to him had been his fault. Well, technically Koujaku had been the one aiming his sword at Noiz then, but it had been Ryuuhou's tattoos that had made him loose his mind in the first place, and his needle had even controlled Noiz to provoke that kind of reaction out of Koujaku. So if anybody was to blame at all for what had happened it was Ryuuhou, so casting all the blame on Koujaku sat wrong with Noiz completely. But the guy responsible for the whole mess was dead already anyway.  
"That stupid old man.", Noiz grumbled, "Can't he just stop taking things to heart if he is not at fault?"  
He sighed deeply, but then winced in newly inflamed pain and grabbed at his stomach on top of the sheets as he realized that moving his abdominal wall by breathing too deeply like that was not a good idea at the moment.

Aoba showed him a sympathetic expression and was about to ask something else, starting with "Say, this thing between you and Koujaku" when the door to Noiz' room suddenly opened and a physician with a nurse in tow entered his room. The nurse politely told Aoba that visiting hours were already over and that Noiz was to be examined by the doctor now, so Aoba bid Noiz farewell and then left the room with a short wave of his hand. Noiz gazed after him and briefly wondered why Aoba had even seen the need to come by in the first place, but then his attention was drawn to the doctor asking him about his state of health and taking notes of Noiz' answers before examining him and explaining the condition of his wound to him.

It turned out that Noiz could leave the hospital if he so wanted now, but the doctor preferred to have him spend at least another night to monitor him a little further now that he had regained consciousness. He informed Noiz that the stitches on his belly were not necessary to be removed afterwards since the absorbable material used to stich him up would vanish on its own, but that even if the suture would heal fast on the outside it might still take a couple of weeks until the wound was healed completely.  
Noiz blatantly asked the physician whether it was normal for his wound to hurt like it did, earning himself a short look of disbelief before the doctor answered in the affirmative and stated that he could have some painkillers if the degree of pain was not tolerable for him and that he was to take some antibiotics as well. Then he advised Noiz to take part in medical gymnastics as an aftercare as soon as the state of his wound would allow it and that he was to come in on frequent check-ups during his healing process. After that he left Noiz' room together with the nurse again.

Noiz felt pretty troubled about all of the things he had been told considering his wound. Suddenly the mere aspect of having to take care of his body in earnest for a while was getting on his nerves. He had hurt himself quite often in the past, due to his inability to feel pain and therefore he was used to bandage himself up frequently. But he had rarely gotten a serious wound that needed a lot of attention afterwards. Well, aside from that one time he had broken two of his fingers during his childhood, but even then just leaving it alone had made it heal just fine - okay somewhat fine, he was still unable to bent his fingers to a certain degree. Whatever, the prospect of having to deal with this incision for a longer period of time was annoying him. If the damn old man, who had caused this situation, wouldn't comfort him at least a little during the time it took to heal, he was going to be seriously mad at him.  
Plus, Koujaku was still owing him a certain sort of payment for his efforts with this whole Ryuuhou-business and Noiz wouldn't allow him to wriggle out of the affair. It was not so much the sex that he was after, even though his body reacted with a certain sort of needy feeling when he thought back to Koujaku's teasing before all that shit with Ryuuhou had went down. No, Noiz wanted the man to face the fact that he had developed deeper feelings for him and he wanted for Koujaku to answer those feelings. Whenever he remembered the last time they had kissed, he hoped that there was the possibility of this wish coming true. A faint memory of Koujaku holding his hand by his bedside lit up in the corner of his mind and Noiz took it as a sign that his hope might not be in vain.

* * *

After another examination the next day, Noiz was discharged from the hospital early in the morning. Walking was still pretty painful, considering the freshly stitched wound on his abdomen and the still slightly throbbing, smaller cut wounds in his legs, but Noiz managed to reach his home, albeit slowly. As soon as he entered his apartment, Noiz slid off his shoes and headed for the bed to get himself into a more comfortable position after having put strain on the unwilling, hurt muscles in his lower body to walk.  
He had considered stopping by Koujaku's usual place to open up shop at on his way home, but then had dismissed the idea. Noiz was still wondering about the look on Koujaku's face after he had opened his eyes in the hospital yesterday. Aoba had told him that Koujaku blamed himself for his injury and that had probably been the reason the guy had fled the scene like that. Maybe he simply hadn't known how to face Noiz anymore all of a sudden.

Noiz sighed - and winced slightly from doing so.

This was annoying. If Koujaku wanted to tell him something, he should just get it over with and then they could come to the more fun part of the Ryuuhou-aftermath. But Noiz was unwilling to beg for Koujaku's attention, he wanted for the other to come to him instead, since it was Koujaku who had a debt to pay after all. But if Koujaku thought Noiz didn't want to see him, waiting for the man to make a move would be pointless anyway.

Argh, fuck it all, he just had to tell this idiot that he wanted to see him then, pride be damned!

Noiz reached for his coil and sent Koujaku a message, reading: "Stop brooding and come visit me, old man! I want to see your ugly mug! (Btw. I'm at home now.)"  
There, this should do it, right? Noiz hit the "send message"-button and his coil let out an affirmative sound.

Noiz rolled on his back and spread his limbs out on the bed while he stared at the ceiling - then he noticed that even that kind of movement had resulted in some pain echoing from his lower half.  
"Ugh... Damn it.", he cursed, but then huffed a laugh at the fact that he could actually get angry over the fact that he was in pain right now.

He had longed to feel something besides numbness for so long and finally his wish had come true. Heck, he even could feel the softness of the bedding against his face and body now and the temperature in his room! He should be more excited about that fact. He should get up and explore everything he didn't have the chance to get a feeling of before. He should have a thirst for adventure now, but the odd part of that was, that the only things which kept swirling in his mind were how Koujaku's touch might feel on him, how warm his body must be or what kind of a ticklish sensation Koujaku could get out of his body if his hands wandered over his bare skin.

Damn, why was he so focused on this guy?

Noiz looked at his coil: Still no answering message. Well, no miracle, he had sent that message from before just a mere minute ago and it was possible that Koujaku might still be asleep at this hour or maybe already up and cutting hair somewhere, unable to take his hands off his customer in the middle of a haircut or something.  
Noiz let a frustrated sigh escape through his nose and decided to make use of his tracker for once. He hadn't given his cube other instructions, so it was probably still set on monitoring Koujaku.

Changing from his phoning screen to a map of Midorijima's Old Resident District, Noiz located the signal of his cube and found it being sent from the first place he had thought of earlier: Koujaku's home. Switching his screen from map-mode to video-mode from the viewpoint of his cube, he allowed himself to get a sneak peek of the inside of Koujaku's house. The cube had jumped out from its hiding spot upon receiving the commands of its master and was now hopping towards Koujaku's bed, allowing Noiz to get a glimpse of Koujaku's Japanese styled room and of the cans of beer and a few sake bottles strewn over the otherwise tidy floor at the moment. Then Noiz caught sight of Koujaku's sleeping face as his cube made its way to settle on the unoccupied, second pillow right next to the man.

Koujaku appeared to sleep soundly for the most part, although his brows twitched from time to time and he seemed to dream about something that made him restless in his sleep and forced him to turn over a few times in a row and moaning in distress a little.

Noiz had underestimated the effect Koujaku's voice and the view of his naked upper body, which was visible down to his waist from rolling around in his sheets earlier, would have on him and bit his lower lip.  
He wanted him.  
He wanted him so badly now.

A painful throb in his lower regions reminded him that even if Koujaku would currently be by his side to fulfill Noiz' wish they probably wouldn't be able to do it due to Noiz' body aching too much. Oh but Noiz' groin didn't seem to care that he was in pain whenever he tensed up his abdominal muscles, so Noiz went on with moving his hands downwards his torso to unbuckle his belt and to zip open his pants to free his erection. Noiz groaned a bit under the slight strain, but the longer he gazed at Koujaku's sleeping face on the video screen right in front of him, the more his loins became inflamed with need. He slightly jerked at the feeling of his own fingers touching his genitals however. He hadn't thought the thing between his legs to be so warm and the texture of the skin down there to be so different from the rest of his body - never mind the metal nubs protruding from his skin being there as well. He blushed like he hadn't touched himself ever before upon the newly found sensory feedback. Then he realised that he didn't have to apply as much force as he was used to, to get his body to respond to his own touches now. He felt quite sensitive down there to be honest, it was almost a little embarrassing to him, but he kept on stroking his member exploratory.

Koujaku slightly moaned in his sleep on the other side of the screen again while turning on his back and Noiz shifted his attention towards the other's sleeping face. He would love to kiss him right now and to let his hands glide through his hair that probably felt amazing when he ran his fingers through it. All the while that fierce look of those crimson eyes while Koujaku was focusing on him the way Noiz remembered it would burn right through to his very soul...

A needy moan slipped past Noiz' lips and he was kind of glad that the video stream was only allowing for images and sound to pass through his way, so Koujaku could neither hear nor see him in return.

"Ah... Hah...! Uhn..."

It began to feel quite good the longer he kept stroking himself. He noticed how hot his body grew the more he allowed his arousal to take him over, while the fabric of his clothes rubbed against his skin as he turned his head and upper body and felt his nipples growing taut under his shirt. The sensations were too new to him and almost bordered on being annoying to Noiz' own surprise. All the while he tried to shove the fact that certain movements hurt him into the backmost corner of his mind, as well, since pain wasn't what he was longing for right now.

His breath quickened as he intensified the pressure he put on his manhood and he felt his throat becoming dry while he breathed in and out of his open mouth.  
"Koujaku...! Kou...jaku...!"

He stole another glance towards the screen he had been watching and saw Koujaku facing in his direction, his lips were slightly parted as he let out a low murmur and Noiz felt himself grew tense for a second as a shiver trickled down his spine from hearing Koujaku's voice and seeing his lips moving. A faint ache from his abdominal area reminded him that he was hurt, but he was beyond caring at this point. His hands worked on his length in hard, quick strokes and he felt himself leaking precum while he headed straight for orgasm.  
Just a little more, a little...!

"Mh... Hm...?"

The sounds Koujaku made on his side of the screen caught Noiz' attention yet again and then he saw that Koujaku looked right at him now, his red eyes practically stared right at him. He must have woken up just a mere second ago. His crimson eyes lacked their usual intensity as he looked ahead of himself and seemed to try to grasp the situation. Then a sudden sight of recognition flashed in his eyes and he began a sentence, starting with "You...?" when Noiz broke the video feed on impulse and felt himself come at the same time.

"A-ha...! Nh...!"

* * *

On the other side of the line a tiny light glinted in the eyes of Usagimodoki before it stopped transmitting footage and allowed a confused looking Koujaku to inspect it further.

Koujaku had found the cube sitting right in front of his nose on his spare pillow the moment he had woken up. The little green and black thing appeared to be staring at him for some reason, though the only facial features it possessed were two tiny, square-shaped eyes bare of any emotions, so it always appeared like it was gazing at something per default. Koujaku just wondered why it had left its usual hiding spot inside of Koujaku's accessory bag to begin with. Was it about to give him some kind of message from Noiz or something?  
"What are you doing on my pillow?", Koujaku asked with curiosity colouring his voice.

"Pi!", the cube answered instantly, "Watching Koujaku, I am!"

"Eh?"  
Koujaku was kind of aghast at the thought of being watched by the little thing even when he slept and his defense was down. Then it dawned on him that the Allmate was technically stalking him, even if Koujaku had given up on trying to get rid of it by now. Koujaku sat up and stretched his arms in an attempt to shake off the stiffness in his body before he looked at the cube again.  
"But why were you watching me while I was sleeping?"

"Pi! Noiz wanted to know what Koujaku was doing."  
The cube slightly bounced off Koujaku's pillow and executed a small somersault.  
"And Koujaku has mail from Noiz! Mail!"

"What?"  
Koujaku looked at his coil in irritation to bring up the message screen and saw a new message in his inbox, but then he paused before he looked at it.  
"Wait a minute. How do you even know that I got mail from Noiz in the first place?"

"Pi!", the cube seemed still eager enough to answer, "Usagi is connected to Koujaku's coil since the time Koujaku wanted to call Noiz. Plus, Usagi gets a copy of all messages directed towards Koujaku to remind Koujaku to read them later in case Koujaku does not react in time."

"That little...!", Koujaku growled through his teeth.  
The brat surely was insistent in trying to get his attention to an overbearingly annoying kind of degree. Koujaku sighed heavily at the fact that he actually wanted to see him now that Noiz had woken up, but didn't dare to make an effort to turn his wish into reality.

What if Noiz hated him now? He had almost died because of the wound inflicted upon him by Koujaku's blade after all.  
Well, it wasn't like they had gotten along especially well before all of those things with Ryuuhou had went down or anything, but Koujaku simply felt like he had betrayed Noiz' trust in him somehow.

"Read Noiz' message! Read Noiz' message! It's labelled as 'urgent'!", Noiz' cube squeaked and directed Koujaku's attention back to the glowing digit in his inbox notifying him of one new message.

Koujaku sighed and figured that the answer he was searching for might lie in the message he had received from Noiz anyway and finally allowed the reading screen of his coil to pop up.

[ Stop brooding and come visit me, old man! I want to see your ugly mug! (Btw. I'm at home now.) ]

Koujaku smiled at the fact that he had read that message with Noiz' voice in mind and could almost hear him grumble as he scolded him for wasting his time with his worries.

So... He wasn't mad at him then? He even wanted to see him contrary to Koujaku's expectations? And he had been discharged from the hospital as well, if the bracketed note at the end of the message was any indication. That was good to know at least.

"Answer Noiz now?", the small cube interrupted Koujaku's thought process and its tiny eyes almost seemed to sparkle as it waited for instructions, but then the angry voice of an enraged, mechanical sparrow and the fluttering of wings echoed through the room.

"Hey you! Stop bothering my master!"  
Beni had apparently awoken from his sleep-mode and landed on top of Usagimodoki, trying to shoo the cube off Koujaku's bedding.  
"And stop trying to behave as if you were his Allmate! That position is already taken by me!"  
He tried to hack at the cube with his beak, but Koujaku gathered the enraged sparrow up in his hand and gave him a lopsided grin.

"Now, now, keep it down, Beni. The rabbit is just trying to be helpful."  
Koujaku stroke Beni's head with one of his fingers to try calming him down a little.

"'Trying to be helpful', my ass!", Beni swore, even as he blushed a little at the caress he received, and appeared to be sulking at Koujaku for defending Noiz' Allmate and simply accepting its presence just like that, as well.

Koujaku pondered whether he should go to see Noiz after all, but after weighing the pros and cons, he decided not to head to his place after all. If he showed up at Noiz' doorstep now, one thing would very likely lead to another and, given his knowledge of cut wounds, he guesses that Noiz still needed some time to heal and therefore should refrain from straining activities such as sex for the time being. Looking back at his coil he wondered if he should just ignorer Noiz' message or attempt to answer him, but he had the feeling the brat would dismiss all of his worries and order him to come around anyway, so he wouldn't answer him for the time being and instead began to get ready for the day.

* * *

Noiz lay in bed, pretty frustrated about this whole affair of touching himself thinking about Koujaku and not feeling like it was even close to being enough yet despite having come plenty. He sighed and finally relaxed his pose and stared at his hand drenched in his own come, before wincing at the pain bleeding through the receding haze of arousal again. His throat felt dry from gasping for air too much earlier and the burning hunger in his loins had only been partially sated. He knew he needed the real thing instead of his poor attempt of recreating events in his mind using his own body and some video footage.  
The other's hot hands with their strong grip around him so even he could recognize it without his sense of touch then was nothing Noiz could reproduce by himself. Neither were Koujaku's hot kisses or the way he breathed into Noiz' ear that had made his every hair stand on end, sending ticklish shivers over his back.

Noiz felt something inside of himself, something stronger than he had ever felt before. It irritated him, torturing him even if he dare think about it too long, which happened all too often these days. He even felt like he was half crazy since none of his thoughts seemed to make any sense to him more often than not, seeing as they strayed from Noiz' usual straight and cool way of analyzing things to get all jumbled up in the process. His head simply was in chaos right now. He had never been that mesmerized by someone to spend that much time thinking about them before.

Ugh, now he was depressed - fantastic. Well at least the aching in his loins had died down together with it and he felt like he could think better now again.

Then his view fell upon the part of the small table in his living room that was visible from his bed. There was a neatly folded piece of fabric lying on top if it. On closer inspection it looked like a red kimono. Then it dawned on Noiz that this was Koujaku's kimono, or rather his late mother's kimono, which he had undressed from before they had headed for Platinum Jail in their make-shift disguises a few days ago. That meant Noiz was still in possession of something Koujaku was sure to want to get back.

Noiz got up from his bed and lightly tugged at the soft material as he pulled it up to his nose to breath in Koujaku's scent.

"Uh... Damn it...!"

He felt newly spiked desire rise inside of him again. This was no good. He hastily put the garment back on the table and tried to refold it as best as he could. Then he searched for something to put Koujaku's kimono into while he waited for his owner to show up at his home. The only thing he had available was some shopping bag, though, so he put it in there before placing it in his linen cupboard to save it from nasty smells or dust to settle in it.

A new look at his coil revealed to Noiz that Koujaku had read his message, but hadn't answered him. Given the time between Koujaku opening the message and him not receiving any answer, Noiz guessed that he wouldn't get anything from the other guy anymore.  
Was Koujaku still not convinced that Noiz was not blaming him for what had happened, or did he simply not want to see him?

Annoyed at the fact that the second option of his thoughts might hold to be true, he typed and sent another message Koujaku's way, reading: "I still got a hostage over here, old man. It's spelling your name on it."  
The instant he had sent the message it hit Noiz, that Koujaku of all people would probably remember where he had left this very important keepsake of his mother and that it had been unnecessary to inform him of its whereabouts. Still, Noiz simply had wanted to underline the fact that Koujaku had to visit him sooner or later, come what may.

* * *

Days passed without word from Koujaku and Noiz grew more and more frustrated the longer this situation lasted. Deep down inside of him he knew that Koujaku probably ignored him simply for the fact that he was one hell of a worrywart, either because he was more or less the cause of Noiz' wound or because he feared to hurt him when they would have intercourse, which was still the deal between the two of them after all - and a promise between men was one to be kept. Noiz was so annoyed at Koujaku, that he spammed his inbox with countless messages to provoke him to come over to his place.

Some of them read:  
"Hey, come over, old man, or are you afraid I'll bite? (I might if you ask nicely.)"  
"Boooring! Why aren't' you here yet?"  
"Come on! Show yourself to me! There's still a debt to pay, remember?"  
"Do you want me to come sexing you up on the streets right in front of all those fans of yours who adore you so much instead? I have no trouble doing it in public - you?"  
"For the last time, old man: Get your ass over here or I'll come to your place instead!"  
"Okay, I'm counting down from 3 now... 3..."

None of those had worked, of course and Noiz really wondered about that last one - he must have been in a pretty stupid kind of mood when he had sent that one. He stopped with the messages after a while and decided to give Koujaku a taste of his own medicine by ignoring him, instead. The only thing he still cared for, concerning speeding things up with Koujaku, was keeping the appointments for his check-ups at the hospital and take part in a few of the advised physiotherapy lessons to let his body know that he needed to move around and to support the scar formation of his wound so it wouldn't bother him later on.

Aside from that, Noiz tried to keep his impatience to meet with Koujaku down by throwing himself into his work. He took pretty much any kind of offer, including the ones usually below his standards. He even took over a few things from other team mates of Ruff Rabbit, who whined about being buried with work, just to keep his mind busy and off from thinking about Koujaku. This resulted in his room getting messed up with a lot of different things, like various boxes of delivery pizza and pasta, cans of soft drinks and smoothies, a few bags of sweets, chips and other snacks and tons of tech magazines and notes on the cases he worked on and had not bothered to digitalize. He tried to keep the food-related garbage to a minimum, though, since he could only tolerate so much chaos around himself at a time and the smell bothered him all too fast. Still his already pretty packed room looked rather messy at the moment - not counting the fact that dust began to pile up on his shelves and equipment since he barely took the time to clean up.  
Three whole weeks passed like that until one night there was a ring at Noiz' doorbell.

Noiz needed a moment to realize that it had indeed been his doorbell that had just rung, probably due to the fact that he had fallen asleep over his work and only woken up from the noise just now. His track of time had been completely upset - not that he had been a person keeping to a normal kind of daily routine before, but his bedtime hours had been ridiculous, especially during this last few days. The reason was simply that he had successfully shoveled himself with so much work that he was overworking himself constantly now. All of that just not to think about Koujaku all the time.

Noiz sighed in annoyance as he rose from where he simply had fallen asleep earlier and tried to get a look at his coil to read the time displayed on it. It was something past 8 p. m., not the usual time to visit somebody, but not necessarily a time to expect people to be asleep already, at least not with Noiz' kind of job. But it couldn't be a customer showing up at his doorstep, since he never made appointments at his living place, because his whereabouts were too dangerous a kind of information to be spread around for Noiz' preference. He prepared to make deals on neutral ground and to receive work offers via coil through Ruff Rabbit's own network, which had considerably high security standards.

A new ring of his doorbell reached his ears and he grumpily dragged his feet towards his frontdoor to have a look at the person standing outside via his video intercom. Theoretically he could just have pulled up the device's video screen on his coil and spare himself the way towards the door, but his mind was still too clouded with sleepiness to allow that kind of reasoning at the moment. He yawned groggily as he finally reached the intercom to get a look at the video screen to see who his mysterious visitor was.  
A man with crimson eyes, raven hair and a scar across his face looked sheepishly at the camera and scratched his head, apparently unsure what he should say if Noiz would open up the door.

Noiz smiled and pushed the doorhandle down.  
"If it isn't you, old man, you have perfect timing. I was just looking for a pillow to rest my head on."

Before Koujaku could even greet Noiz' back, he was pulled inside of Noiz' apartment by the sleeve of his red, plain spare kimono and maneuvered over straight to the corner of his room with the bed standing in it.

Seeing, where they were headed through all the clutter in Noiz' room, Koujaku started to protest all the while being ruthlessly steered towards the bed.  
"Oi! Wait up, Noiz! Not so fast! I didn't come here for that! It's still too early, isn't it?"  
He must have calculated that meeting Noiz after such a long time of abstinence might lead to sex, though, since he didn't put up as much resistance against being thrown down onto the mattress as he could have done it. Noiz climbed on top of him and Koujaku's level of fidgetiness rose even higher.  
"Shouldn't we at least set the mood first or something?"  
He still tried to reason with him, even as he already lay there on his back and Noiz had begun to open the collar of his kimono.  
"Noiz! Seriously, wait, that's-"

"Shut up, old man, don't squeal like some virgin!", Noiz scolded him with an all too amused tone in his voice, but a cunning look in his eyes, "This will be over soon, don't worry."

"But-"

Before Koujaku could utter another word, Noiz: flopped down right on top of Koujaku's bared chest, inhaling his scent and enjoying his warmth as he put his cheek to rest there.  
"Perfect..."  
Then he closed his eyes and fell asleep the next moment.

"Eh?"  
Koujaku blinked, totally confused by what had just happened.  
"N... Noiz?"

No response.

"Uhm, hello...?"

Still no answer from Noiz aside from him breathing quietly and peacefully with his head resting on Koujaku's chest - he clearly was off to dreamland already.

Koujaku let out a sigh as he lay there staring at the ceiling with a completely baffled look on his face and stroke the overlong bangs usually covering the right side of his face back with one hand. Then he glanced back at Noiz.  
He had come over to see how Noiz was doing since the brat had stopped sending him stupid text messages a while ago and Koujaku had been too stubborn to write him a message back in return out of worry that Noiz would somehow force him to come over to his place to finally make good on that promise they had shared. It was less the sex that he had been worried about and more the possible damage he could do to Noiz' body by the act, hurting him all over again. But a good three weeks had passed now, so Koujaku thought that whatever the outcome might be, the result should not be that bad for Noiz anymore, even if it might hurt him - being unable to feel pain was no reason for Koujaku to make his body ache, missing feedback from Noiz' body aside.  
But he never would have guessed to be welcomed that way.

The lights were out in Noiz' room, but the screens he used to work with were still popped up and emitting light bright enough to see Noiz' features pretty clearly. He looked tired, even if he was asleep already, if the bags under his eyes were any indication. Maybe that had been the reason he had needed that long to answer the door previously, as well. Koujaku absentmindedly brushed through Noiz' short hair and then caressed Noiz' cheek with his thumb before moving his head closer towards the other to breath in his scent. It was the same fragrance he remembered from last time he had been able to bury his nose in Noiz' hair. Remembering the occasion made him blush, though, and he turned his head away again. He wasn't going to do any indecent things to a sleeping person, so he probably shouldn't try his luck like that. If anything he guessed he should get some rest now, too, and talk to Noiz in the morning. There wasn't really anything else he could do at the moment anyway. But the green light emitted by Noiz' virtual screens still hanging in midair all over the room troubled him.

"Man, I wish those screens wouldn't be that annoying.", he grumbled and to his surprise a text message with "saving progress" was displayed the next moment before the screens began to shut down one after the other, until the only source of light were the dimly glistening eyes of a stack of bunny cubes across the room, which had apparently been used to give off the images from before. Then even they stopped gleaming and Koujaku finally felt relaxed enough to fall asleep as well.


	12. Chapter 12

The room was locked, Noiz was sure of it, but he couldn't verify his suspicion because he was unable to move.  
His body simply wouldn't listen to any of his commands and there was this uncommon, warm sensation all around him.  
It was somewhat nice, but too suffocating, Noiz simply wanted to get out of it with all his might.  
He needed to get to that door and see if it was locked after all.  
He had to know!  
If only he could move!

* * *

Koujaku was awoken by an elbow hitting his face after he had cuddled up to Noiz during the night and was currently spooning with him, holding him in a tight embrace. It was a habit he sometimes had while sleeping, but this was the first time he was ever greeted like that in the morning.

"Ugh... Noiz, watch it-Uwah!"

Noiz tried to turn around and kicked in his sleep, obviously trying to get out of Koujaku's embrace now after he had let him hug him pretty much all night long. Koujaku rubbed his abused nose and removed the arm he had slung around Noiz' waist to give the other some space to move around, but something was off. Now that he could see Noiz' face more clearly as the young man tossed and turned around in his sleep, Koujaku saw that Noiz' facial features were distorted with fright. He had even broken out in a cold sweat and had begun to shiver, he must experience something truly awful in his dreams.

"Oi, Noiz! Wake up! Noiz!", Koujaku called his name and carefully slapped his cheek to wake him up.

Noiz' opened his eyes with a start and stared right into Koujaku's worried face.

"Are you awake now? It looked like you had some serious nightmare, you were struggling like mad."

Noiz' heart beat loudly in his own ears and he had trouble understanding any word Koujaku had just said. He tried to calm down is breathing and to ignore the cold sweat trickling down his neck, but it was no use. Then he attempted to get a better picture of his situation first to help himself steadying down: He was lying in is own bed with Koujaku right next to him. They were both dressed. The other man held him in some kind of a loose embrace, probably torn between wanting to hug him to put him at ease, but wanting to give him some space to catch his breath, too.  
But Noiz' blood still rushed through his veins too fast, making him feel like he had no time for any of this now. He had to see if the door was locked, so he tried to get out of bed, only to get his feet tangled up in the bedsheets and fall over, hitting his head on the bookshelf-like room divider next to the bed in the process.

"Noiz, watch out!", Koujaku looked at him in horror and was about to jump out of bed to inspect Noiz' forehead for a wound, when the young man tried to stand up again, only to fall down onto his hands and knees right away. His circulation clearly didn't agree with his body moving around too fast while his heart ran a marathon on its own and he was attacked by a wave of giddiness.

Still, Noiz had the strong urge to get to that goddamn door at all costs, so he half-crawled, half-walked - or rather swayed - towards his frontdoor until he could finally grab its handle and pull it down.  
The door opened without any resistance, yet Noiz opened and closed the door for three consecutive times before finally being sure that it wasn't locked. His breathing was still in chaos, but now that he knew the door was indeed unlocked he was finally able to calm down and kept kneeing in front of his door until he was going to feel a little better.

When Koujaku had finally caught up with him, he had watched the procedure at the door with utter disbelief, but after seeing that Noiz seemed to calm down afterwards, he headed for the kitchen to get him a glass of water.  
"Here, have something to drink.", he offered him the glass and Noiz took it with both hands, just sipping on it first, but then emptying the whole thing in one go.  
Koujaku crouched down next to him and began to slowly rub his back.

"Care to tell me what just happened? What was that all about?"

Noiz was still a little short of breath and eyed Koujaku warily, knitting his short brows.  
"Do I have to tell you?"

Koujaku blinked, but decided to neither back down nor to act provoked and grinned at him instead.  
"Hmm... Seeing as you know pretty much everything about me but I barely know anything about you, I think it would be just fair to shine a bit more light on your quirks, don't you think?"

The younger man couldn't deny that logic, but still tried to be reluctant to spill the beans, even if he already thought up a way to explain things to Koujaku in the back of his mind.  
"I have not right to decline then?"

Koujaku could see that Noiz wasn't really putting up a front and shook his head with another grin.  
"Nope, since you didn't ask me for permission before rummaging in my secrets either."  
Then his facial expression darkened and his voice took a sterner undertone, to make it clear to Noiz that he was serious about this, while his fingers lightly touched the part of Noiz' forehead the other had bumped against the bookshelf earlier and which began to spurt a bump now.  
"This looked pretty dangerous right now, so I insist."

Noiz flinched at the short sting of pain induced by Koujaku's fingers and brushed the other's hand away with a lopsided smirk on his lips.  
"Heh... I see. I guess I have no choice then. How about we begin with a main data exchange first, so that we're on equal footing before I get to my little problem from before?"  
There was no objection from Koujaku's side, so Noiz continued.  
"Since I gave you the reader's digest version of what I knew about you back then, I guess I'll make it short for my key data, too."  
He looked at Koujaku with his usual, stoic expression as he began talking as if reading a file about himself.  
"You already know my birth name by now, so no reason to repeat that. You also know that I'm an information broker, which Allmate I possess and which team I'm from so let's skip that as well. I stand 179 cm tall and my blood type is A. Told you my age already, too, but my birthday is June 13. I like delivery pizza and pasta... And I think I'm done now with the dating-show-simulation. Let's get to that other stuff-"

"Wai-wai-wait a minute!", Koujaku flailed about and interrupted Noiz from picking up speed to charge head on into answering Koujaku's initial question.  
"There clearly are a few facts I didn't get here, even if you said I know them already!"

Noiz rose a curious eyebrow at him as if to say "Are you serious?", but only proceeded to furrow both brows with a sigh.  
"And what would that be, old man?"

Koujaku let out a slightly indignant huff at Noiz' mocking tone, but decided to ignore it, so as not to provoke a dispute.  
"Like the fact that I would know about your birth name - I have no clue about that. And what about your age, you never mentioned that either."

"Are you hard of hearing or is your memory defective, old man? You already know both of these facts. It's not even been a month since I told you my age and you should have gotten my real name from when I was talking to this Ryuuhou-guy at the night club before we went to his room."  
For all Noiz' problems to portray emotions with his facial features even now, he looked pretty pissed at Koujaku for having forgotten two important facts about him.

Koujaku tried to remember, but he couldn't recall Noiz having told him his age before. As for that other thing, his name, that he had mentioned towards Ryuuhou...  
Koujaku frowned.  
"Wait a second, the only name you told Ryuuhou then was the one from that business card you gave him. It was 'Wilu'... Wiluhel'... ' 'Wi'-How the heck do you even pronounce that word?! Is that a real name? Honestly?"

Noiz' mien darkened to a degree unbeknownst to many due to the sheer rarity of its occurrence as he growled: "I get it, old man, for God's sake...! I'm not fond of the name myself either, hence why I changed it. It's not like 'red sparrow' was that much of a better name, you know? At least my name means something like 'will' and 'protection'."  
He crossed his arms in front of his chest and appeared to pout.  
"Maybe we shouldn't do this whole information exchange thing after all. There are people who simply can't take things seriously enough."

Koujaku clenched his teeth to hold his tongue. The words just had slipped past his lips earlier, he had just been in disbelief but didn't have the intention to insult Noiz for his name. But when Noiz had paid him back by making light of his own name, which was a very personal thing for Koujaku, his pride had been scraped and he got what he had done. Therefore he swallowed his retort and apologized to him instead.  
"I'm sorry, Noiz, uh... Wi...Wil...helm. I didn't mean to mock you for your name."

Noiz looked at him only out of the corner of his eyes and huffed another sigh before relaxing his arms a little - still sounding a bit sour, though.  
"It's fine. Just call me Noiz, I'm used to it. Or if you have to, just use the diminutive and call me 'Wim' instead to avoid twisting your tongue. I'd prefer it if you wouldn't do that either to be honest. For you I'm Noiz and I don't want to be called anything else."

Koujaku put a hand on Noiz shoulder and lightly patted it.  
"I get it - Noiz. But thank you for telling me your real name. I appreciate it."

The way Koujaku smiled at him as he said that made Noiz blush a little and he turned his head away to avoid eye contact.

Then another thing dawned at Koujaku and a new wave of confusion clouded his face.  
"Wait a minute. Does that mean, the rest you told Ryuuhou about was true as well? Like you being from Germany and your parents owning an IT company? I knew about you being a rich kid already, but I thought it was due to your hacker prices being astronomically high or something."

Noiz gave him a look over his shoulder and let out a heavy breath before enlightening Koujaku a bit more about his background.  
"Well, to be more specific, I'm three quarters German and one quarter Japanese on my grandmother's side. And my parents do indeed own a company, but IT is just one part of it. I do have some heritage from my parents, but I didn't use any of it since I arrived at Midorijima, so my current lifestyle is covered by my own income and saved up money."

Koujaku blinked and rubbed his neck, thinking about the facts he had just been told. It wasn't really something new to him, more like details added to the picture that was Noiz. Him being biracial was something Koujaku had figured out on his own since long ago, but the fact that he came from a country as far away from Japan as Germany was, still surprised him to a degree. That Noiz was rich by default wasn't new to him either for a while now, but him having some kind of heritage over there in this faraway place but still preferring to live in a cramped space like this and leading life the way he did it was puzzling for Koujaku. Why would he choose to throw away what he had gotten by simply being born into his family? The definition of "rich people" Koujaku had in his head was something like living in a big house with servants and the like, kind of similar to the way he had experienced it while staying at his father's place, who was the head of a yakuza clan after all. Well, it might be more pompous for Noiz if there was tons of money to spend, he guessed, but your obligatory rich child born into a noble family usually didn't have to worry about himself for even a second, much less work even one day of his life. But there Noiz was: probably not an adult for long, but already living on his own for quite some time - at least as long as he had been with Ruff Rabbit now - responsible for his own income and as far from his original home as possible.  
Maybe something had happened in his family that had driven Noiz to leave his home country; Koujaku could only guess.

Musing about all of that made it even harder for Koujaku to address the other matter he couldn't remember the answer to earlier, and he bit his lower lip in insecurity already, when Noiz spoke again.

"By the way, concerning my age I told you once, that you were '8 years my senior', right? That means you were pretty good with your guess that I'm in my early twenties - I am twenty years old to be exact. You could have done the math by yourself, you know? It's not that hard."

Koujaku's eyes widened. He did have guessed Noiz' age right then, but his estimation proving to be true still shocked him quite a bit. Noiz was still so young, all the more so if compared to himself.

Noiz apparently took the perplexed face Koujaku was making as him being insecure about his own age and gave him a reassuring, if sassy, grin.  
"Don't worry, old man, I still think you're hella attractive, age be damned."

Koujaku turned red almost instantly and gasped for air, not knowing if he should take Noiz' comment as a compliment or as an insult and was on the verge of snapping at him, when Noiz' earnest smile made him hit the breaks. That brat had probably really meant no harm in saying that this time, even if his choice of words could have been better. Koujaku let his tension slip with an audible sigh and scratched his neck.

Noiz' face had relaxed enough from its earlier touch of being in the sulks and he reseated himself a bit more comfortably on the floor before beginning the tale Koujaku had wanted him to tell at the beginning of their conversation.  
"Remember I once told you that people, who knew about me not being able to feel pain, reacted pretty much the same way every time? It's either disgust, fear or arrogance. That includes people belonging to my family as well, especially my parents. They even fulfill all three of the categories, hence why they tried to get rid of me during my childhood, or at least of my presence around them. They decided that if I am not presentable enough to be showed off as a member of their society due to my condition, they would lock me up and act as if the problem didn't exist anymore."

Koujaku felt his eyes widen as Noiz mentioned this fact almost nonchalantly and couldn't help himself interrupting him this time.  
"Lock you up? You mean... locking you away... for real...? Like imprisoning their own child?"

Noiz looked back at him and even though there was currently no emotion showing on his face, a veil of sadness seemed to hang over him before he avoided looking at Koujaku directly and just shrugged.  
"I guess they didn't think it was that bad with me being locked permanently into a room inside of their own house. I had a whole apartment all to myself with all the comfort a human being could want after all, including high-class meals and my own, private tutor. But they might have put me into the worst kind of cell in some underground prison for all I cared - it would have felt the same for me."

"But you were just a kid for fuck's sake!", Koujaku's voice roared through Noiz' narrative while his fist hit the wall right next to him and he stared at Noiz with utter disbelief in his eyes.  
"Didn't your parents think you might feel lonely and abandoned if there was no one around you?"  
There was nothing but disgust clawing at Koujaku' features while he kept his eyes locked with Noiz' and his hand against the wall stayed balled up to a fist.

Noiz looked at him, blinked and gave him a deadpan stare in return.  
"I guess they didn't consider this."  
He eyed Koujaku's clenched fist still shivering with the force he put behind it and slowly guided it away from the wall, drew it towards his lap and patiently pried Koujaku's fingers open one by one. Then he inspected Koujaku's hand for visible wounds as he turned it around between showing the palm and his back of the hand before closing up the other's fingers again and presenting Koujaku with a small, sorry smile.  
"You know the thing you witnessed earlier, me trying to open that door, it's something that happens to me now and then when I have a nightmare about the time I've been locked away. It's the same dream every time, even if it might vary a little now and then. But it's always me being locked up in a room with no way out. No matter how hard I try to get to the door or to open the lock - it's just no use."  
Koujaku answered his gaze with a sympathetic look on his face as if he had been spooked by some kind of scary story, leading Noiz to give him another strained smile in return.  
"When I wake up and that dream still lingers in the back of my head, I have that urge to proof to myself that I'm no longer anybody's prisoner, so that's why you witnessed that scene from before."

Koujaku couldn't say anything to this at the moment, his logic still striving against that kind of behaviour of a parent against their own child, even if he knew first hand that there were parents as lovely as his mother and as abusive and manipulative as his own father had been. Still, to do something like shutting away their own child from the world because they couldn't handle his condition and traumatizing him enough to still have trouble coping with his childhood as an adult was unbelievable for Koujaku. No wonder Noiz had his difficulties building up relationships with other people. Aside from his lack of being able to feel physical pain, and therefore probably a lack of sympathizing with other people experiencing that emotion, he had experienced rejection even from his own parents, his family, the people he should have been able to trust the most and who were responsible for his view of the world.

"Hey, old man... Are you... crying? Did I make you cry?"  
Noiz' low, dry voice echoed in Koujaku's ears while his view was blurred from tears spilling down his face without him having noticed it starting, when Noiz cupped his cheeks and inspected his face.  
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to do that."

Koujaku just pulled him into a tight embrace without words.  
Noiz didn't deserve this, nobody deserved to be treated like that, even less for something they were not at fault for. Koujaku heard his own breath shiver while he cried almost silently. One of his hands grabbed for Noiz' back of the head to ruffle his hair, stroking it even, as if Noiz was in an emotional turmoil here and not Koujaku himself.

Noiz enjoyed the fact that he could actually feel Koujaku's caressing fingers on top of his scalp now. It was somewhat calming and reassuring, spreading a warm feeling through his whole body. He lifted his arms to return Koujaku's embrace and nuzzled his neck a little before closing his eyes and concentrating on Koujaku's warmth enveloping him for a while.  
Then he sighed contentedly.  
"Feels nice." Then he chuckled at himself. "At least something good has come out of this whole mess with Ryuuhou, since I can feel your warmth properly now."

"Eh?"  
Koujaku ended the embrace and looked at Noiz in wonder, the tears still hanging in his eyes being wiped away a little roughly by the sleeve of his kimono.  
"What do you mean by that?"

Noiz met the others eyes with an equally questioning gaze.  
"You don't remember that one either?" Koujaku's state of mind as he had gone berserk in front of his old enemy flashed through Noiz' thoughts and he stopped short, murmuring more to himself than to Koujaku. "Or maybe you were unable to get it at that time?"

"What are you talking about? What did I forget again? What has Ryuuhou done to you? And did you just say you can feel properly right now?"  
He grabbed Noiz' shoulders and shook him lightly.  
"How is that even possible?"

"Wait, wait, slow down, old man.", Noiz waved a hand in front of the other's nose and then let out a sigh, trying to sort out his own thoughts.  
"How much do you remember from our encounter with Ryuuhou exactly?"

"Well, he led us to his room, then took you hostage somehow and made you do weird things."  
Koujaku's hand brushed over his forehead and grabbed strands of the bangs covering the right side of his face, apparently struggling with awakening the memories he would have preferred to forget.  
"My memories are hazy to be honest, I only recall a heat and rage welling up inside of me, consuming me more and more the longer it lasted. Then I chased towards Ryuuhou and..."  
Koujaku looked up to Noiz and his eyes wandered down towards Noiz' stomach while his expression spelled misery all over his face.  
"I hurt you while charging at him. After that it's just a total blur before Aoba used his power on me to return my sanity."

Noiz slapped himself inwardly to be the cause of the current look Koujaku gave off with this tense expression on his face and his temples bathed in cold sweat, that had broken out on his skin while he had talked.  
"Sorry, to make you remember all of this. I should just have told you, I guess.", Noiz gave him a short pat on his shoulder and looked Koujaku in the eye before continuing.  
"That time Ryuuhou took me hostage he used his weird tattoo needles to bend me to his will and made me attack you in the end. But he just wanted to see you in a state of madness, so his tattoo could bloom on you or something. I was only interesting to him as long as I couldn't feel pain, because this masochistic piece of shit wanted to be the first to torture me and hear me cry out as soon as my condition would be nullified. I swear that old geezer got a boner just at the mere thought of it."  
Noiz appeared to be totally disgusted at his recollection of the tattooist and tried to shake the thought out of his head as soon as it had passed his mind.

"Whatever, he told me that my acquaintance, whom I ordered to get Ryuuhou's info for me, fucked up and was caught by him, spilling the beans about me collecting data on him. Ryuuhou used him to turn the tables to dig up stuff about me instead. Turns out I was an experiment of Toue's as a kid as well without remembering it later on, because they screwed with my memories back then. That whole thing of me not being able to feel pain was because of some weird hypnosis experiment that could be triggered and undone by some simple conditioning words. I still can't believe that. But I got Ryuuhou to undo the spell and since then I can feel pain and the other sensations that come with it. It's really odd that I have to be kinda grateful to this weirdo. But to be honest, if you hadn't killed him back then, I am almost sure I would have done it instead, because he was such an asshole."

Koujaku gave him a look of utter doubt towards his story, but Noiz only smiled at him.

"Sounds crazy, right? But it's the truth and I like the fact that it worked. That's the reason I was so insistent on wanting to meet you."  
Noiz' voice grew unusually affectionate as he got into more detail and a light blush made its way to decorate his cheeks, becoming more and more visible the longer he talked.  
"I wanted for you to be the first to share my feelings with; to feel your warmth, your breath on my body, the touch of your hands on my skin..."  
Noiz rolled his eyes at himself and broke eye contact with Koujaku.  
"Ugh, I just sounded like a character out of the worst kind of a romance novel right now."  
He awkwardly pinched the bridge of his nose as if to want to hide his face from Koujaku, but then allowed himself to peer towards the older man.  
"Well, it might have sounded sappy as shit but that's how it is. So what about you? You up for that kind of thing now?"

Koujaku gave a start as if to wake up from a trance - the sheer amount of new information having overwhelmed him quite a bit.

Did Noiz really mean what he thought that Noiz meant with this question?  
Was this about honoring his promise, about having sex with him, now that Ryuuhou was dead and Noiz could feel properly?  
Wouldn't this be like Noiz' first time in a way then? At least his first time with all of his emotions released since he would have all the feedback from his body now?  
And Noiz wanted Koujaku to be the first to awake passionate feelings inside of him?

Koujaku felt kind of privileged by the prospect and overwhelmed at the same time as his mouth worked with only mumbled gibberish spilling from his lips on first try. His temperature rose as a result and made him blush and all the hand motions he did were of no avail as he tried to form words again.  
"You... You want me to...? I mean your body is pretty much a virgin to sensations at the moment and you want ME to be the first one to take you like that?"

Noiz was amused about Koujaku's antics and couldn't resist the temptation to add to his edginess, so he slid one hand below the hem of his black, long-sleeved shirt to pull it up to bare his nipple and leered seductively at him.  
"I'm all yours, old man."

"Kh...!"  
Koujaku felt an unbearable tension in his whole body, but then a weird feeling of something wet running down his nose startled him and he slapped a hand below his nostrils, only to bleed right over his back of the hand.

Noiz couldn't believe the sight he was shown at first, but couldn't hold back a laugh either.  
"Pfft! Haha...! A nosebleed? Seriously? How eager are you, old man?"

"Shut up!", Koujaku's retort sounded muffled and he grew as red as a tomato while pinching his nose now to keep the blood from running out of it.

"Ahaha! Ouch...!"  
Noiz flinched a little and held his belly as his laugh had made his skin vibrate in a way to anger his still healing wound from the inside of his body. His laugh still danced in his voice as he spoke, though.  
"Sorry, old man, it's just no use, this is too precious!"

Koujaku didn't know if he should be delighted to hear Noiz of all people burst out into laughter after what dark themes they had discussed only a few moments ago, or if he should be offended that Noiz made fun of his misery.  
"Can it, you brat! I couldn't help it!"

"It's fine.", Noiz remarked dryly as he waved his hand in a dismissive gesture, but still snickered on, "I feel flattered."  
Then he got up from his sitting position to head for the bathroom.  
"Stay where you are and keep pressing down on those nasal wings of yours. I'll get you something to help you."

He returned only a few moments later to Koujaku's side with a washcloth soaked in ice-cold water and put it on his nape, making Koujaku flinch.

"Uwah! What the hell is that?!"

Noiz pressed down onto the washcloth to keep it from falling off and gave Koujaku a half amused smile.  
"Relax, it's just a wet washcloth. Putting something cold in your nape while having a nosebleed is supposed to make your vessels constrict to help stopping the bleeding. I would have given you a cold compress but I fear I'm all out, so this'll have to do instead."

"You do know a little bit about treating wounds aside from 'just leaving them alone' after all, hm?"  
Koujaku grinned at him from a straight sitting position with a slightly bent down head to prevent himself from swallowing his blood and make it flow towards his nose instead, even if he kept it pinched at the moment.

Noiz gave him a knowing, snarky smile in return.  
"I know what to do about a nosebleed at least, it's not like it's that seldom a thing to happen when you're heading down the streets of Midorijima and meet with locals... or are made to 'meet' them for that matter."

Noiz seemed to recall a pretty annoying kind of memory judging by the look on his face. Koujaku could only guess what kind of people Noiz ran into on his way to deliver his information or simply cross the streets and therefore territories of Rib and Rhyme players. Aside form that Noiz was the type of guy that often rubbed you the wrong way - Koujaku had experienced that firsthand. Seeing as Noiz hadn't known how to sew a wound, back when he had received those cut wounds and insisted that it would be fine if he left it alone, made Koujaku wonder how serious the damage on his body had been since he had come to Midorijima. But he at least seemed to know that bandaging yourself up was a good thing to do when you were hurt to the point of spilling your own blood - at least if the usual bandages around Noiz' hands were any indication. It might have been a way of trying to prevent himself from getting hurt, too, now that Koujaku thought about it, along with those double-layers of clothes he usually wore.

"Hey, old man."  
Noiz' dry, nagging voice interrupted Koujaku's thoughts and he found himself the target of an observant creature squatting right next to him with one elbow propped up on his knee while his hand supported his chin.  
"Why didn't you visit me sooner or answered any of my messages? Or rather: Why did you visit me now after all?"

Koujaku gazed at him for a few moments before taking his hand off his nose to reach out for him, but then stopped himself from touching Noiz' face as he spotted the blood smeared on his right hand, so he lifted his other hand instead and softly stroke Noiz' left cheek with the back of his knuckles.  
"There were various reasons, but the most pressing matter for me was not to hurt you more than I already did. I am sorry for what I've done to you. I should have struggled more against my own insanity to keep myself from directing my blade towards you. And I should have kept you out of that mess with Ryuuhou in the first place. It was more than dangerous, you could have died from either of our hands, not just mine. I was reckless and blinded by my own hatred. So I didn't know how to face you after all of this."

Koujaku's view sank towards the floor and he was about to take his hand away from Noiz' face again, but the young man put his own hand on top of it, palms touching each other, and snuggled against Koujaku's back of the hand, gaining back the other's attention.  
"Didn't I already tell you that I got something out of it in the end and that I'm happy about it? I can feel the warmth of your hand now, that's worth more to me than getting out of a dangerous situation unharmed. Besides I insisted on accompanying you despite the risk. I'm not a kid, I knew it might get rough. You're not at fault for my own decisions."

Noiz green eyes locked with Koujaku's crimson ones and he gave off such a reassuring look that even Koujaku began to believe that everything had turned out fine in the end. Yet he was still in doubt.  
"I didn't answer you messages because I feared doing so would lead to you becoming even more insistent about meeting with me and to deliver on my promise, but I feared your wound might reopen again if I did. But I guessed that's not so likely to happen anymore now, so I thought it was fine to visit you."

He loosened the hold on Noiz' cheek and the other let go of his hand, so Koujaku could reach behind his own neck to get a hold on the wet washcloth Noiz had put there. Holding the item in front of himself and asking for permission to use it for his bloodied hand with his eyes, he received a shrug and a short nod from Noiz and cleaned his hand with it. Then he reached for both of Noiz' hands and took them in his, an earnest look on his face.  
"I intend on keeping my promise and give you what you want, but I need you to think this over once again before that. Wouldn't it be better if you choose someone else for this first time you can feel another person's touch properly? Don't you think too highly of me to want to grant someone like me that kind of honor? I mean-"

"You want me to do this with anyone else?"

Noiz' question stabbed at Koujaku's heart and his head shot up to look at him wide-eyed while Noiz' ice-cold, answering stare bore right into his soul at the same moment. Not even talking about being imprisoned by his parents during his childhood or the things Ryuuhou had done to him had provoked that kind of a piercing anger from Noiz - or at least he hadn't shown it openly. Koujaku swallowed hard and looked away again. Noiz was definitely totally serious about this.

When Koujaku had made that deal with Noiz a few weeks before, he had thought he could just carry out his duty and throw Noiz to the side afterwards to make him aware that his feelings were not reciprocated. But now Koujaku felt already guilty at the mere thought of doing something like this to him.  
The sole act was very likely not what Noiz was after, even if he tried everything to make it look like pure desire. Noiz craved another kind of attention from him, he wanted to be loved more than anything else, Koujaku was sure about it. But as much as Koujaku had to admit to himself that his feelings towards Noiz had gradually changed, he was still unsure if this emotion was worthy called "love" yet. But at the same time he believed that anything beside that feeling between them, during that act of making Noiz feel the emotions he had so desperately craved for years, was like betrayal towards Noiz. The young man's feelings were sincere and Koujaku didn't want to hurt him if he couldn't answer them properly.

Yet, being confronted with the prospect of allowing someone else to share a precious moment of intimacy like that important "first time" with Noiz now made Koujaku's heart ache all the more, even if he himself had suggested it. Words were uttered easily, but the feelings that came to light alongside them as soon as they had left his mouth and Noiz throwing his words back at him just like that as if to make them true, were tough to handle.  
He didn't want for Noiz to be touched by a random stranger, who had no idea how relevant that act would be for Noiz.  
If anything, it should be somebody who loved Noiz, too.  
But even that idea betrayed him as soon as it had entered his mind and made his heart ache in response.  
Now that he thought about it for more than a second - now that he actually imagined it to happen; pictured it in his mind that someone else would touch Noiz in that kind of way, make him feel hot and bothered, be embraced and adored by him - Koujaku instantly didn't want for that to become a reality anymore. He didn't want to hand Noiz over to anyone else.  
But he didn't want to give Noiz hope for more to come afterwards, either, if he wasn't sure he could give him what he desired and deserved.

Koujaku had successfully driven himself into a corner where he wanted and didn't want something at the same time.

He tightened his grip around Noiz' hands and looked at him with a face full of misery.  
"I'm just not sure if I love you yet, but I don't want to hurt you if it turns out that I don't have the same feelings for you that you have for me."

Noiz' brows rose and he blinked - he appeared to be stunned. A few seconds passed like that, before Noiz' facial expression melted into a touched smile.  
"God, I love you so much, old man, you have no idea."

Not giving Koujaku any time to react, he leaned forwards and kissed him eagerly, using Koujaku's initial astonishment about his reaction to free his hands and drape them around Koujaku's neck as he deepened their kiss. This made the other man recline and support himself with one hand behind his back and gave Koujaku trouble to enjoy Noiz literally throwing himself at him. He tried to wriggle out of the kiss, but failed.  
He was lucky that Noiz decided to end it on his own just a few moments later and looked at him with a smile.

"You're so adorable. You don't want to hurt my feelings and therefore you think I shouldn't choose you. But it's exactly because of this that I want you all the more."  
Noiz was about to kiss Koujaku again, but the other held a hand in front of the young man's lips and shook his head in a completely flustered state.

"Wait, wait, wait a moment, Noiz! You DO understand that even if I'm fine with doing it with you, it's what comes afterwards that worries me, right? That I don't want you to feel abandoned yet again, because I'm unable to reciprocate your feelings the way you wish for it? You get me on this?"

Noiz answered him with a smile yet again.  
"If course I do. You truly are terribly cute, old man, haha!"

"I... I am what?"  
Koujaku had been called many things in his life but "cute" was something new. And why was Noiz so goddamn amused about this whole business?  
"Why are you laughing now? Weren't you all serious about this thing before?"

Noiz couldn't keep himself from letting out a snicker through his nose.  
"Of course I'm serious about this. But honestly, old man, as much as I want you, do you really believe I'd hang every thing this relationship is about on this one time of having sex with you? You wouldn't do it with me just because I asked you to, so I had to trick you into it somehow. But that doesn't mean this is going to be a once-in-a-lifetime kind of thing, you know? If you're already this much into me to be that concerned about it, I bet you'll allow me to get even closer to you afterwards. And then we can take things slowly. It's not like I'd expect you to fall for me 'cause we've done it one time only. If you say that you don't love me yet than that means there is at least the chance for that to happen later, right?"

Noiz' unfamiliar grin and his way to pour that many words over him in one go threw Koujaku off even more than his enraged face from before had done it, and he couldn't get his thoughts in order to give much of a response in return.  
"Uhm... Well... I guess it might be possible?"

Noiz' grin widened further. He looked like a child that was given all of his presents from Easter, Christmas and his birthday on one day.  
"See? You have considered this, meaning it's a start. Now relax and stop thinking so hard or your brain might short circuit, old man. Instead you can help me making you fall for me a reality by finally getting into the mood and show me what else you can use that tongue for instead of talking."

Not waiting for a response from Koujaku's side, Noiz pressed their mouths together and kissed him almost violently while attempting to slip his tongue past Koujaku's lips. Koujaku made a disagreeing noise, but then finally gave up his protest and let a breath escape his nose. He closed his eyes and opened his mouth to welcome Noiz' tongue by meeting it with his own, trying to stop him from being too forceful and to slow his advances on him down a little.  
They hadn't kissed that often yet and the last time they had enjoyed each other's lips and tongues had been weeks ago, so it felt pretty intense, even if Noiz' hurry made the kiss quite sloppy.

Noiz leaned his weight onto the other man in a way, that Koujaku came to lie on his back and the younger man used the opportunity to straddle him. Then he broke their kiss and gave him a sly smile.

"Did you know that kissing was my form of greeting somebody, because I could feel them best with my tongue? So, after salutation is over now, let's get to the even more fun part."  
He began to rub their crotches together slowly but firmly, practically grinding on top of him.  
"Ah...! You already feel so good through your clothes. I can't wait to get you out of these."

"Ffh...! Don't get so full of yourself, you brat!"  
Even if Koujaku was okay with doing it with Noiz, he wasn't willing to be toyed with, so he grabbed Noiz firmly by his buttocks and lifted his upper body from the floor.  
"I'm not going to do it with you in your entryway. If anywhere-" He drew his legs towards himself as if attempting to sit cross-legged before getting up from the floor with the package that was Noiz clinging to him with a display of an ever so slight panic on his face. "-we'll use your bed for this sort of thing, so hold on tightly."  
Koujaku couldn't hold back a smirk as he carried Noiz through his apartment towards his bed. He bet the young man hadn't thought him capable of pulling off such a stunt. He shouldn't underestimate his strength.

Noiz didn't say anything while he was carried around as if he wouldn't weigh a thing, but he briefly wondered if the old man was trying to impress him here. No need for that, though. But Noiz thought it no harm to stroke the other's ego a bit, so he smiled and dryly whispered in Koujaku's ear.  
"You're really something else, old man."  
Then he playfully tugged at Koujaku's earlobe with his teeth before licking it once.  
"That's what makes you so interesting."

A small, sharp intake of breath was hearable from Koujaku, but he said nothing in return. Then they had reached Noiz' bed and he carefully placed the younger man on top of the mattress, kissing him as soon as Noiz' shoulder blades touched the bedding.

Having had his taste of Noiz' mouth before already, Koujaku's lips touched Noiz' only for a little while and he left him hanging hungry for more after he teasingly fenced a little with Noiz' tongue and let its tip play with Noiz' tongue piercing for a bit. Koujaku wanted to explore more then just Noiz' mouth this time, so he placed light kisses from his mouth to his cheek until he arrived at Noiz' less heavily decorated right ear and nibbled on his earlobe before lightly biting down on his outer ear.  
He felt Noiz shiver from his action and recognized his ear turning red as his cheeks flushed. He must have discovered a new, erogenous zone, that was awakened now that Noiz could feel properly. He snickered at his finding, the breath leaving his nose as he did so tickling Noiz' ear even more and provoking a nervous sound from the younger man. Koujaku continued to play with Noiz' ear a bit longer, dipped his tongue inside the outer shell and then kissed the area right beneath his earlobe, earning himself another shiver.

He was just kissing him and Noiz expected it to feel good since he knew how good kisses from Koujaku could feel already - on his mouth or wherever. But his time he thought that something must be wrong with his body. Was he supposed to feel all of this by that simple touch of Koujaku's lips and tongue alone? He already knew the heat in his mouth and the tingling sensation in his stomach when they had kissed before, but what was the deal with these goosebumps down his spine and that terrible heat in his face that even worsened now that Koujaku was pressing his lips down his ear and neck? It was even arousing to just feel Koujaku's breath on his skin whenever he came close to place another kiss on his body, be it the crook of his neck or his collarbone or wherever. Not to mention his hot hands caressing his sides underneath his shirt as he slowly went down on him.  
Noiz' pulse quickened to an unknown haste and his heart beat loudly in his ears while he began to breath faster. This was beginning to become too much for him already and Koujaku hadn't even begun to try arousing him for real. If anything, he slowly drove him mad.

Koujaku stopped moving for a moment and glanced upwards to see Noiz' slightly panicky expression as he followed him with his eyes.  
He smiled reassuringly.  
"What is it? Didn't you say you wanted to feel me? I intend to taste you to my heart's content."  
That said, he helped a very speechless Noiz out of his black sweatshirt before he stroked and kissed the young man's chest and his quivering belly, tracing his navel with his tongue and tugging at his piercing. Looking up again, he murmured with a velvety-soft voice while his crimson eyes held Noiz' captive.  
"You like it, don't you?"

Noiz swallowed hard and his voice sounded as dry as sandpaper while he had trouble to form words with his lips.  
"Yeah... Feels great, but..."  
Noiz gasped and had trouble looking straight at Koujaku.  
"How the hell do you cope with... all those crazy feelings from all over your body? Is it... supposed to feel that intense, or am I just... weird?"

Koujaku was indeed a bit surprised that Noiz was already that wound up even though he hadn't done much yet, but then he gave him back a smile while playing with Noiz' right nipple with his fingertips.  
"You really are completely head over heels for me, hm? It's really cute."  
Choosing to evade a concrete answer towards Noiz' question, he gave Noiz' left nipple a lick, then lightly nipped on it with his teeth before beginning to suck at it.

He provoked a sharp intake of breath from Noiz, who grabbed at the sheets. The younger man usually wasn't the type to just lay there like a dead fish and let the other do all the work, but he was a bit too overwhelmed at the moment to come up with anything he could do. He would have loved to bury his hands in Koujaku's sleek hair, but his hands shivered too much and he doubted he could filter out the feedback from his fingers properly right now, while his body was showered in emotions awoken by Koujaku's touches. He found himself acting pathetic, even though he told himself hat it couldn't be helped, since he had never been touched like this before since he could properly feel again.

Koujaku was about to leave Noiz' belly alone again, when his eyes spotted the scar on his abdomen he had been the cause of. After inspecting it for a moment and being relieved to find it having healed so well already, he licked it soothingly as if wanting to erase it from Noiz' skin.  
Then he made his way further down Noiz' body until he arrived at the other's crotch and had a good look at the tent showing on his pants. Sighing at the fact that the other wore his usual pair of black leggings underneath them, he began to fumbled with Noiz' belt and pulled the first layer of pants off of him with a bit of effort. Noiz got ready to help him with his underpants at least, but Koujaku pressed a hand flat on Noiz' torso and gave him a look that made Noiz choose to flop on his back again with a frustrated whimper.  
Koujaku thought him to be rather cute the way he acted. He probably had thought this to be a quick, rash sort of thing to happen and no act of slowly worshiping his body. But Koujaku took the view that if they were about to do it, they should try to make the most out of it.

Shifting his attention back to Noiz' lower body, the bulge straining against his leggings surrounded by a visible, wet spot, practically yelled to be let out of its confinements. Koujaku did him the favour and got rid of his leggings and underwear in one, swift motion, leaving Noiz bare aside from his green socks. He had to laugh at these a little, they looked so silly without all the rest of Noiz' outfit and his legs dangling over the edge of his bed. But this was of no importance to him right now. Noiz was way too strung up to be able to enjoy making love for real, so Koujaku intended to make him relax a little bit at first.

His hand reached for Noiz' cock and the moment he touched it, Noiz' gave a little start, but didn't do anything to prevent him from going further, so Koujaku made himself comfortable as he knelt between Noiz' legs. Then he gave his length a lick from base to tip before exploring it further with his hand, massaging the underside with his thumb in the process. Noiz shivered and let out a moan, provoking a grin to spread over Koujaku's face.

"Say, why do you have so many piercings anyway?", he asked before giving the tip of his cock a lick, evading the piercing on his glans at first before gathering his courage and lightly tugging at it with his teeth, provoking a surprised gasp from Noiz' paired with a groan and troubled breathing before he answered him in a pressed voice.

"Same reason... I wanted to play Rhyme... I simply wanted to feel pain."

Koujaku's fingertips glided downwards Noiz' dick, touching the barbels and the metal ring close to his scrotum. In the back of his mind he heard a voice telling him that he should be grossed out by willingly touching another man's private parts, especially in the way he did it right now, but Koujaku didn't listen to it and instead voiced another question.  
"And it didn't hurt when you got them? Not even down here?"

"Fffu...!"  
Noiz' cock twitched under Koujaku's caress and he felt even more strain in forming a coherent sentence than before as he tried to answer him.  
"There was just... something like a slight discomfort, but... that was all about it... I wouldn't call that 'pain'."

"I see... Well, it's more important to feel something else with this instead, right?"  
He hooked his tongue under the ring of Noiz' scrotum piercing and pulled it towards his mouth, before lasciviously licking Noiz' cock again and was about to take it into his mouth, when a warm, sticky substance hit his face as Noiz' nails dug into the sheets as the tension forced its way out of his body suddenly.

Koujaku was surprised, but moved a little to the side to get out of the line of fire and tried to wipe his face off Noiz' come, but was unable to keep himself from stealing a glimpse of Noiz shivering during his climax.

Noiz crossed his arms above his face to cover it and bit his lower lip as soon as it was over. He clearly was ashamed about himself for having come this early. Koujaku drew in breath between his teeth before he sighed and tried to pry Noiz' arms away from his face.

"It's fine, you know? It just shows me that you could feel all of my touches properly."

He managed to make Noiz give up on trying to hide his face from him, but the young man still displayed an awkward expression that spelled embarrassment all over it. Koujaku placed his palms on top of Noiz' and squeezed his hands lightly before bending down to lightly kiss his lips.

"The way you look right now, it makes me want you all the more."

He sealed Noiz' lips for another, deeper kiss. He would taste all of him to the fullest.


	13. Chapter 13

Shit! Shit! Shit!  
This was so damn embarrassing!  
Why did he have to come early now, if he was usually the guy who needed the longest to gather enough stimuli to reach his climax?  
Noiz couldn't even enjoy the kiss Koujaku gave him to calm down his nerves, even though he was such a sucker for the man's mouth under normal circumstances.

Feeling all of these new sensations right now had just been so overwhelming and watching Koujaku go down on him earlier, the way he seemed to enjoy every inch of his body, had just been so very sexy Noiz hadn't been able to help himself. And then the man had to brush his silky, black hair behind his ear to get it out of the way before attempting to give him a blowjob. Noiz still cursed at himself for coming before he could enjoy the warm and moist tightness of Koujaku's lips around his erection, but the visual Koujaku had given off had just been too much for him - never mind his terribly slow teasing that had driven Noiz half-crazy before that already.

Koujaku ended their kiss and Noiz spurted pouting lips.  
"You don't have to sugar-coat me, old man, I'm a big boy, you know."

Koujaku raised a lazy eyebrow at him, but then huffed a soft laugh before he smiled and let both his hands slide down Noiz' cheeks, looking at him flirtatiously.  
"Alright Mr. Big Boy, what would you like me to do next, hm?"

Noiz answered him with an annoyed look and halfway propped himself up on his elbows behind his back.  
"Well, for starters you could wipe that smug grin off your face and get undressed. It's not fair if I'm the only one naked here, besides I wanna have some eye candy, too."

Koujaku gave him a facial expression that spelled surprise and a hint of disbelief. Noiz had told him that he wanted him, but he had never specified what he liked about him body-wise, as far as Koujaku could remember. Maybe he would be able to find that out now. With that in mind, Koujaku rid himself of his shoes before he got on his knees on top of the bed, undid the clasps on the back of his neck cover to take it off and untied his obi afterwards. Then he slowed down a little and began to undress more carefully, revealing parts of his body in a way he could keep track on Noiz' reactions towards the naked skin he was shown bit by bit.  
Well Noiz liked his chest area, Koujaku could tally that quite quickly with how the young man gazed at his pectoral muscles when he slid his kimono off his shoulders. When he took off his gloves, he could see Noiz give his arms and hands a view as well. And judging by how Noiz leered at him when he undid the bandaging around his lower upper body, he had a thing for his abs as well - honestly, being stared at like this, it almost felt almost a bit uncomfortable. Plus there was the issue of the cursed tattoos clinging to his body being perfectly visible right now, which had always been a problem for Koujaku. But Noiz had seen him naked once before, when he had undressed him in the room above Mizuki's bar, and he already knew pretty much all there was to know about the reason Koujaku hated the inked artwork on his skin. There was not a shred of disgust on Noiz facial features, though, quite the contrary. Noiz had a slightly absent-minded expression on his face, which was decorated by a nice tinge of red on his cheeks. Koujaku wondered what lewd things the brat cooked up in that brain of his while he watched him undressing himself. He could even see him bite his lips and licking them afterwards like he was anticipating quite the thing to follow as soon as Koujaku would have gotten rid of all his clothing.

Koujaku's pants were next, but Noiz didn't seem to be able to wait anymore and bent forwards to hook his fingers into the waistband of his jeans.  
"Let me do it from here on.", he murmured and his voice sounded raspy from arousal.

Koujaku became suddenly embarrassed as he realized just now, that the bulge in his pants was all too visible without his kimono hiding it from view. And Noiz seemed to stare at it with a passion. Then the young man bent forwards and bit at his crotch playfully, making Koujaku aware of his teeth even through the fabric of his jeans.

"Noiz...!"  
It wasn't so much a rebuke then a warning. Koujaku hadn't come yet, but Noiz had shown him nothing but nice reactions so far and if he would play around too much now, Koujaku was certain he would blow his load too early.

Light green eyes gazed at him from below as Noiz unbuttoned Koujaku's pants with practised ease, but couldn't resist to pull down the zipper with his teeth and earned himself a hearable let-out of breath from the older man. Noiz grinned at himself, but said nothing as he pulled Koujaku's pants and underwear down to his knees in a swift motion and was finally face to face with his erection, which already dripped with precum.  
"You seem to be in quite a good mood, old man."  
Noiz teased Koujaku's glans with his index finger and made him let out a moan before the other glared at him red-faced.

"Stop playing around, I'm close to my limit already."

"Really?", came the mocking reply and before Koujaku could utter another word, he felt Noiz giving his cock's tip a lick.

Koujaku grabbed him by his shoulders to shove him back an arm's length and scolded him with his cheeks glowing even more red than before.  
"What the hell are you doing? Stop that! I told you just now, didn't I?"  
This brat was unbelievable!  
And now that dirty grin was back on his face!

"Don't you want to have some relief before getting to the real thing, as well, old man? Or are you that eager to do it with me now?"

"I am, so don't provoke me any further."

The stern face Koujaku was making shut Noiz up while he blinked in surprise. Then the younger man's expression softened and made room for the sensual look Noiz had given Koujaku as he had watched him undressing himself earlier.

"But I can still touch you a little bit elsewhere, can't I? I want know what you feel like some more."

Looking at him like he didn't know what to say to this, Koujaku simply allowed Noiz to straighten himself up on his knees so they were on the same eye level before Noiz gave him a light kiss on the lips. He then kissed his way down Koujaku's neck until he arrived at his collarbone and rested his head in the crook of Koujaku's neck a little while his hands went on to explore the shape of Koujaku's torso. He did it eagerly but slowly at the same time as if he wanted to process and memorize everything about Koujaku's body with his newly awakened sense of touch finally giving him the feedback he had so desperately craved before. Then Noiz briefly teased Koujaku's nipples, but it was more like Noiz was trying to learn about the shape and texture of the other's skin than actually trying to arouse him by his touches.  
Koujaku glanced down at him and Noiz almost looked like he was worshiping his body as he slowly slid his hands downwards, now giving up his head resting by his shoulder, and trailed the way of his fingertips with his lips, enjoying every part of the muscular body in front of him. Koujaku swallowed hard at the sight and the feeling of the feathery light touches at one time and the more possessive, almost clawing touch of Noiz' fingers at other times. Then Noiz paused for a moment to bring his nose close to his skin and took in Koujaku's scent - he really seemed to have a thing for that.

Koujaku felt his loins throb longingly, he couldn't take it anymore.  
"Noiz... I want to be inside of you now."

Noiz looked up at him with his eyes only and his lips opened slightly as if he wanted to say something, but refrained from doing so and instead laid back lasciviously on the sheets and spread his legs around Koujaku in a way that his knees nearly touched the other man's upper thighs.

Koujaku got on all fours and tried to shift his body to reach Noiz' mouth, but before he accomplished his goal, he got tangled up in his jeans still hanging around his knees and half-crashed on top of Noiz with a surprised gasp.

"Pfft! What... the hell?"  
Noiz couldn't help but to snicker at the sight and Koujaku swore at himself, looking down at the disaster around his own legs he had forgotten about until now.

He moved away from him again to reach for the bandages wrapped on top of his pants down to his ankles and appeared to be angry about the fact that they were there now of all times. After having gotten rid of them, he was finally able to undress completely and threw his pants off the bed Then he resettled on all fours above Noiz with an embarrassed snort and was unable to make eye contact for a few more seconds, before he finally met with Noiz' green gaze again and lifted a hand to caress Noiz' cheek with it before he offered his fingers to Noiz' mouth to signal him to suck on them.

Noiz simply rose his eyebrows at the gesture and seemed a bit mesmerized by the feeling of Koujaku's fingertips touching his lips. Koujaku smiled at him.  
"I still have to get you ready, don't I? Will you help me out?"

Noiz finally opened his mouth and allowed Koujaku's fingers to slide past his lips and welcomed them with his tongue, wetting them and giving off an extremely sexy aura while doing so.

Koujaku tried to swallow again, but his throat felt completely dry. The aching in his loins grew ever stronger, and he could feel even more precum dribbling out of the tip of his cock. He didn't know how much longer he could take this. The atmosphere around them felt quite heavy and loaded, like a string that could snap any minute.

Koujaku shook his head and cursed at himself inwardly in an attempt to gain back control over his body. He couldn't simply pounce at Noiz, he didn't want to hurt him after all, and he still had to prepare him down there before he could so much as think about entering him. That said, Noiz had managed to swallow Koujaku's fingers almost up to his knuckles and the hot, moist feeling around them was nearly too much for Koujaku, so he pulled them out of Noiz' mouth and positioned them at his entrance.  
"This might hurt a little, so try to relax yourself as best as you can."

Noiz gave him an answering smile and tried to encourage him.  
"You're so careful. How do you even know this? I thought you hadn't done it with a guy yet."

"Gh! I haven't, I just-!"  
Koujaku hit the breaks just before he could blurt out that he had tried to gather information about how two guys were having sex during the time they had been apart, getting himself in quite a panic the more he got to know about the subject and stopping in the middle of it again and again and put it off, until the day he had planned to visit Noiz had drawn dangerously close already. It was just so damn embarrassing.

Noiz seemed to be able to guess what was on his mind by reading his facial features, but settled with giving Koujaku a warm smile in return.  
"You're a considerate lover. That's another thing I like about you."

"Kh...!"  
Koujaku breathed out shortly through clenched teeth and managed to add another shade of red to his cheeks and the tip of his ears.  
"Ju...Just try to relax yourself... okay?"

Noiz gave him a short nod and Koujaku's finger entered him slowly. There was an initial sense of discomfort, but looking at Koujaku's strained face, that practically spelled how much he hoped to do this thing right, helped Noiz to relax his mind and muscles at the same time, allowing Koujaku's finger to slide inside of him.

"Hey", Noiz softly called out to Koujaku and made him look up from what he was doing, "stop concentrating so much on what you're doing down there, too, and kiss me some more instead."

"Uh... Uhn."  
Koujaku complied and shifted forwards to let their lips meet, all the while making small movements with his finger buried inside of Noiz.

Noiz tried to concentrate on the kiss until Koujaku's finger hit a spot inside of him that made him jolt up with a surprised gasp, breaking the kiss.

"Oh?", Koujaku rose a curious eyebrow and then cooed, "Is this the spot rumoured to feel good?"  
He tried to hit the same place again and made Noiz shiver and moan - he definitely had found something good. Encouraged by Noiz' positive reactions, he added another finger and tried to widen him a bit more.

"He-hey, old man", Noiz breathed with only half-opened eyes, "I think I can take it, just enter me already."

"But-"

"I won't mind, even if it hurts.", he reassured him and then whispered in Koujaku's ear, while his hand slid down Koujaku's body and his fingers smeared the man's precum on his erection.  
"It's fine, if it's you, so just do it."

No, this was still to early - his mind told him, but his lower body throbbed like hell and he was so ready since forever, he simply couldn't hold himself back any longer and so he accepted Noiz' offer all too willingly. Grabbing Noiz' legs and lining up their hips, he entered him slowly in one go.

Noiz gasped and moaned under him, clawing at Koujaku's thighs in response to the discomfort of being spread wider than before so soon. He tried to force himself to relax by remembering that it was just what he had wanted and that it was Koujaku entering him, something he had craved for so long now. His breath came out in short, shallow waves and then he realized the other having stopped to move - he must have driven himself into him up to the hilt and gave Noiz a moment to get used to the feeling.  
It was hot, so hot inside of him, both down there and in his head. His thoughts swirled around in a senseless haze and the only thing he was capable of recognizing was Koujaku's heated gaze on him and the way the other's muscles shivered under the strain of not pounding into him like a mad man already, to get rid of all of the tension built up inside of him.

Noiz smiled weakly, then reached up with his hands to briefly brush through Koujaku's hair before he locked his arms behind Koujaku's neck.  
"It's fine, just move."

"Kh...!"  
Koujaku grunted and began to move his hips. He tried to be careful as best as he could, but had trouble holding back. In the end he felt his self-control slip and he drove his cock in and out of Noiz in a hard, steady rhythm. Wanting to make it feel better for Noiz, he grabbed for his cock and stroke him in time with his thrusts, massaging the area around the barbells with this thumb. His partner moaned in response, albeit not too loudly, which kinda irked Koujaku.  
"What's wrong? Does it hurt after all, or is it just not the right spot?"  
He angled himself differently, trying to find that particular place inside of the other that made him feel best, and then Noiz' whole body jerked and the air seemed to have gotten stuck in his lungs.  
"Found it?", he grinned and earned himself a half-angry expression from Noiz.

"You...! Ungh... Hff...!"  
He couldn't finish his sentence and tried to fight for more air to fill his lungs with, while his nails began to dig into Koujaku's back as if to answer him instead.

"Are you... holding yourself back by any chance now?"  
Koujaku asked with a grin and bent forwards to reach Noiz' ear, whispering into it hoarsely.  
"Come on, tell me how mouch you like it, I want to hear your voice."  
His thumb poked the tip of his cock, hitting the sensitive area around his slit.

"Kh...! ...Ngh...!"  
Noiz breathed out through his nose and then closed his eyes - apparently having to will down his pride, or at least to do something he wasn't used to - as he tried to gather his voice.  
"H...Hha...! ...Ah...! Ah!"

Koujaku smiled at him in return and gave his forehead a kiss to award him.  
"Yeah, like that. Sounds better to me. Give me some more."  
He allowed himself to get a little more rough than he already was to tease Noiz and felt him jolt up below.

"GH-! ...He-hey, you-AH! Aah!"

"That really is your good spot, hm?"  
He was turned on like hell. Seeing Noiz loosing control more and more, and feeling his own lust burn inside of himself with a passion made him reach a state close to ecstasy. And judging by the look on the younger man's face and the desperate attempts at responding to Koujaku's thrusts by moving his own hips, Noiz was in the same situation.

"G-goddammit...!"  
Noiz swore, appearing to sway between wanting the sensations to increase even further and being afraid of it at the same time.  
"Hah! AH!"  
There was no place for any thoughts left in his head, though, only burning desire washed over him, as he was plunged into and stroked hard at the same time.  
Noiz heard his own heart beating loudly in his ears, felt an incredible heat scorching his insides and wanted nothing more than to finally reach that blinding light that promised release from all of this tension tying down his body. Just a little more...  
"Kou...jaku... Koujaku...!"

Koujaku's ears perked up and he almost stopped moving as he heard his own name spill from Noiz' lips. The young man was out of breath and only whispered the word in his raspy voice, but it was clearly Koujaku's name. He had thought there was no way to turn him on even more, but Noiz had proven him wrong.  
"Noiz...!"  
Koujaku bent forwards to suck and bite at his neck, then drew back to intensify his efforts to pleasure Noiz further, driving himself into him even harder and deeper then before and massaging his erection.

"Kh...! Hff! Nh...!"  
There was no room for any loud noises anymore, only gasps left his body as he was swept away by Koujaku pounding into him and hitting his inner walls where it felt best, while he stimulated him with his hand as well. Noiz was sure to have drawn blood by clawing at Koujaku's back already, but couldn't let go. He needed something - anything - to anchor himself to reality with while his mind drowned in pleasure.

The bed creaked loudly as their bodies moved as one and another shove was answered by thrusting back, again and again until they finally reached their climax together - voices pressed tightly and fingers digging into the other's skin as they clung to each other during release.

* * *

They breathed haphazardly as they tried to come down from their peak again.

Noiz still held fast onto Koujaku's back, although his hands and arms shivered from the strain and exhaustion by now and he had difficulty breathing like this. But he liked the feeling of closeness he could share with Koujaku like that, or rather the fact that he could sense something like this by embracing him. It made him happy.

Koujaku didn't mind Noiz clinging to him, even though they were covered in sweat, and his hand was drenched in Noiz' come while the faint feeling of scratches itching on his back slowly began to bleed through the haze of endorphins now. He couldn't believe he had been able to feel that good together with Noiz. Had he fallen for the brat without realizing it? He hadn't been sure about his feelings before he had made love to Noiz, but... No, wasn't this just his body talking? He should ask himself what he truly felt for Noiz after he had calmed down again, to make sure that his body didn't try to betray his heart. Good sex was one thing, but being in love with him or not was a serious issue for Koujaku. Having managed that kind of thought process by now, Koujaku then pulled out of Noiz carefully and grabbed for a tissue box by Noiz' bed to clean his hand. Then he rolled to the side, enabling Noiz to cuddle up to him and to rest his head in the crook of his neck.

Koujaku began to leisurely stroke Noiz' shoulder and could hear a soft sigh escaping the younger man's nose as if to appreciate his gesture. Koujaku turned his head to bury his nose in the soft crown of strawberry-blonde hair and took a sniff of it - it smelled nice and Noiz' short locks tickled his face.

"Say... have you fallen for me a little?", Noiz asked after a while and Koujaku took on a thinking expression and kept silent for a while before he answered.

"I don't know yet."  
Koujaku huffed a low, short laugh.  
"You see, just a while ago I was convinced I was straight as can be and watch me now... acting all sappy and feeling good being close like this with another guy."

Noiz gave a shrug.  
"Bi, straight, gay, whatever. Isn't the important thing about all this, that you are with the person you want to be with?"

Koujaku blinked.  
"...You know, for a brat who's inexperienced with socializing that's quite a standpoint."

The younger man replied with a dry chuckle.  
"Are you mocking me, old man?"

"Quite the contrary.", Koujaku purred and nudged Noiz' head lovingly, "I'm complimenting you."  
He softly kissed Noiz' forehead and then started running his fingers through his hair. The fact, that sharing kindness and affection like this towards Noiz, felt like the most natural thing for him made him smile at himself.  
"...Maybe I have fallen for you after all."

Noiz couldn't resist a low giggle and enjoyed the tender caress of Koujaku's fingers.  
"Hum... I'd like that."

A yawn escaped Koujaku's throat and he blinked lazily. They had just gotten out of bed earlier and it was probably not even noon yet, but with a straining activity like hot, steamy sex behind them and no pressing appointments in front of him, Koujaku didn't see the harm in taking a little nap. And judging by how calm Noiz lay in his arms, the same went for him. As he was about to pull Noiz into an embrace before heading off to sleep, he remembered what had happened the last time they fell asleep like that and he stopped himself.

Noiz noticed the movement and Koujaku's sudden uneasiness however.  
"What is it?"

"No, it's... nothing, just..."  
Koujaku wondered how to break the subject to Noiz without making him remember about his panic attack this morning - it was impossible, though. He groaned in defeat.  
"I just wanted to hold you tight before falling asleep, but the last time I did so, you ended up having a bad dream of being locked up and I don't want to trigger that again."

"I see."  
Noiz responded flatly and didn't say anything for a moment, before he continued.  
"It's not as if I dislike being embraced by you in my sleep, though. It feels... nice."  
He rubbed his cheek against Koujaku's chest as if to underline his statement and Koujaku noticed a faint tinge of red on his skin from the corner of his eyes and smiled.

"Well, it doesn't mean that we have to use that kind of position though."

Noiz rose an eyebrow, but gave Koujaku enough room to move around on the bed to turn his back towards him now, glancing over his shoulder invitingly.

"If we do it like this..."  
He guided Noiz' arm around himself, so that he could embrace him from behind, and covered his hand laying on his stomach.  
"...then you're still close to me and I can feel you, too."

Noiz gave a smirk.  
"So you wanna be the little spoon then? You could just have asked."  
He snickered, prompting Koujaku's cheeks to redden and for the taller man to mumble a curse under his breath.

Noiz didn't mind their change of position, though, he was most comfortable sleeping on his side anyway. So he adjusted himself to line up with Koujaku's body in front of him properly, affectionately rubbing his forehead against the other's broad back.  
But then he felt Koujaku tense up and inhaling sharply.  
Did he do something wrong?  
He looked at the scratches glowing red on Koujaku's back and wondered if they hurt him now. Deciding to lick his wounds on impulse only made Koujaku strain even more however, making Noiz uneasy.  
"Sorry for scratching you earlier. Does it hurt that badly?"

"Eh? Ah... no, that's... That's not it, don't worry about it."

The shiver in Koujaku's voice prompted Noiz to worry just fine, though, and the fact that Koujaku tried covering up what afflicted him made it worse.  
"Stop that right there, old man.", he told him almost warningly, "I don't like you hiding things from me, much less when I'm pretty sure it's my fault that causes you to suffer. So spit it out: What's wrong with you all of a sudden?"

"Uhn..."  
Koujaku haltingly let out his breath trough his nose, apparently fighting with himself to explain his issues.  
"It's not your fault. I brought that over myself just fine now, so I'll deal with it, don't worry. It's just my own stupidity, that's all."

Noiz sighed and was about to start a lecture beginning with "Now listen here, old man", when he touched Koujaku's back with his fingertips and earned himself another shiver, even though he hadn't even been close to any scratch wounds for sure this time. Looking at Koujaku's back with a bright red flower tattoo glowing back at him, it finally clicked in his mind.  
So that was it?  
Koujaku's back was his weak point, because that was the place where the cursed peonies bloomed, which had brought so much misery over him already. And now Noiz was right behind him, face to face with that damned tattoo, reminding both of them that Koujaku had turned into a monster in the past, who had not only hurt himself but other people - Noiz being included just recently.

Noiz pressed his forehead against Koujaku's back anew and exhaled heavily through his nose before planting light kisses on the tattooed skin, ignoring Koujaku's new jolt at the sensation.  
"I think I get your problem, old man. But for me the curse on your body is secondary when I look at you, you know?"  
He ran his hands over the other's skin in a loving way to underline his statement.  
"You're beautiful to me. Those red flowers look gorgeous on your back, precisely because they are right there. It's sad that they brought you so much pain, but as the thing that they are - a tattoo - they don't blemish you, if anything they enhance your handsomeness."  
He gave Koujaku's back another, more lingering kiss, then a lick, and whispered in his ear.  
"And they turn me on."  
He suggestively rubbed his crotch against Koujaku's lower back, earning an embarrassed slap of Koujaku's hand at himself and a grumbled call of his name.  
Noiz snorted and caught Koujaku's hand, entwining their fingers and guided their arms back so their joined hands came to a rest on Koujaku's stomach again.  
"I've already seen the worst of you. I'm not afraid. And you've left your past behind you now, right? There's nothing to fear anymore."  
Noiz nuzzled Koujaku's neck and closed his eyes while cuddling up and making himself comfortable again.

Koujaku hoped that he wouldn't notice his heart beating like crazy right now.  
This damn brat was simply unbelievable.


End file.
